'43 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



It breeds all over the United States and Canada, and northwards to Yukon, 

 wintering in South America down to Chili and the Rio de la Plata. 



Description of adult (Puebla, Mexico, H.E.D.) : bill slender, yellowish-green, 

 dark at the tip ; iris brown ; general colour sandy below, buff above ; crown dark 

 brown, except for a central buff line ; shoulders and wings brown, each feather 

 with a buff margin; tertiaries barred also with black; primaries brown, with a 

 white shaft to the first only, and the inner webs of all, especially the first and second, 

 whitish, barred and mottled with brown ; rump and lower back sooty black ; upper 

 tail-coverts barred, dark brown and white ; tail buff, with several dark brown bars 

 across all the feathers, the subterminal one much the broadest ; the central pair 

 of feathers nearly an inch longer than the external pair, and the tail, therefore, 

 acutely wedge-shaped ; throat and upper breast buff, with narrow dark brown 

 stripes, some of the lowest becoming arrow-heads ; chin and rest of under parts 

 plain sandy, barred only on the flanks with brown; axillaries white, barred 

 regularly with black; legs and feet yellow. Length, males nj, females nearly 

 12 inches, closed wing about 6. 



The winter dress hardly differs from that of the summer, except in the 

 greater development of the buff edges to the feathers ; it is, probably, by the 

 wearing away, or absolute moulting, of these fringes that the summer dress, as in 

 so many birds, is arrived at. 



Young birds closely resemble the adults, but are still more rufous above. 



The nestling (Iowa, H.E.D.) wears a pretty mixture of finely mottled black 

 and soft grey above, with rufous tips ; below sandy- white ; " bill bluish, with dark 

 tip ; legs clay colour," (Coues). 



It breeds on the prairies of the interior, even after they have come under 

 cultivation ; the nest, a hollow in the ground, lined with a few dead leaves and 

 grass blades. The eggs four, not markedly pyriform, drab in colour, sometimes 

 with a greenish or pinkish tinge, blotched with light neutral-tint and dark brown. 

 Length i by rather over ij inch. The female is said by Dr. Coues to do the 

 sitting ; the young at birth are more helpless than is usual amongst the Limicolae, 

 and require the attention of the old birds for a comparatively long time ; the 

 latter are devoted parents, and very solicitous in the presence of man. 



"A fine game-bird" (Coues). The food consists of grasshoppers, very 

 abundant on the prairies ; beetles, worms, mollusca, and even berries are also 

 eaten, and the birds are nearly always in good condition usually extremely fat 

 and held in high estimation for the table. They seem to be usually tame, and 

 easily shot. Their ordinary note has gained them the name of " Papabot," and 

 they have also a harsh alarm-note, and a long melodious love-whistle. They are 



