UPLAND SHOOTING. 97 



" The dry, upland plains of those sections of Louisiana, call- 

 ed Oppelousas and Attakapas, are amply peopled with this spe- 

 cies early in spring, as well as in autumn. They arrive there 

 from the vast prairies of Texas and Mexico, where they spend 

 the winter, in the beginning of March or about the first appear- 

 ance of the Martins — Hinmdo Purpurea — and return about the 

 first of August. They are equally abundant on all the Western 

 Prairies on either side of the Missouri, where, however, they 

 arrive about a month later than in Louisiana, whence they dis- 

 perse over the United States, reaching the Middle Districts early 

 in May, and tlie State of Maine by the middle of that month, or 

 about the same period at which they are seen in Indiana, Ken- 

 tucky and Ohio. Some proceed as far north as the plains ad- 

 joining the Saskatchewan River, where Dr. Richardson met with 

 this species in May. 



" It has been supposed that the Bartramian Sandpiper never 

 forms large flocks ; but this is not correct — for in the neighbor- 

 hood of New Orleans, where it is called the ' Papabote,' it 

 usually arrives, in great bands, in spring, and is met with on the 

 open plains and large grassy savannahs, where it generally re- 

 mains about two weeks, — though sometimes individuals may be 

 seen as late as the loth of May. I have observed the same cir- 

 cumstance on our Western Prairies, but have thought tliat they 

 were afterward obliged to separate into small flocks, or even 

 into pairs, as soon as they are ready to seek proper places for 

 breeding in ; for I have seldom found more than two pairs with 

 nests or young in the same field or piece of ground. On their 

 first arrival, they are generally thin, but on their return south- 

 ward, in the beginning of August, when they tarry in Louisiana 

 until the first of October, they are fat and juicy. I have observed 

 that, in spring, Avhen they are poor, they are usually much less 

 shy than in autumn, when they are exceedingly wary and difla- 

 cult of approach ; but this general observation is not Avithout 

 exceptions, and the difference, I think, depends on the nature of 

 the localities in which i\\e\ happen to be found at either period 

 When on newly-ploughed fields, which they are fond of fre- 

 7 



