THE BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER. 529 



feeling akin to uncanniness. Where is the bird ! Another call gives the direc- 

 tion, and you stand staring into the southern sky until in the distance, far up, 

 a quivering speck appears, approaches, passes onward, anon scattering broad- 

 cast the rolling whistle, without an added tremor of the wings. The bird 

 seems a monster at least the size of a large hawk but the long, slender 

 neck, small head, and almost no tail, are unmistakable. I have often won- 

 dered if the birds ever use their wings as other birds do. I have never seen 

 more than the slight quivering, or the motionless soaring. The slight move- 

 ment of the long wings certainly adds to the ethereal appearance of the bird, 

 which seems to float free in the air, usually with a slow forward motion. 



The rolling cry is not unlike the rolling call of a tree-toad, but of a dif- 

 ferent quality an-d calibre, which makes it unmistakable. The whistle is 

 partly double, the first part passing upward nearly half an octave, terminating 

 abruptly there, the second part beginning where the first began and rapidly 

 swelling through nearly or quite an octave, then gradually falling again and 

 decreasing in volume to the close, several tones above the beginning. The 

 first part of the whistle is usually rattling or trilled, and sometimes the trill is 

 carried to the end, but oftener it becomes a clear whistle before the culmina- 

 tion, and continues clear to the end. Tre-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e, tre-e-e-e-e-e- 

 e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-p ; or tr-r-r-r-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-p. Often the whistled part is never 

 reached, but the call stops as if interrupted by some threatened danger. 



In northern Ohio the birds make their nests in the midst of a pasture 

 or meadow, often without more than a few stray grass blades lining the slight 

 depression in the ground. In more rolling regions the nest seems to be placed 

 preferably on a hilltop, or on a side-hill ; but in any region an open field is 

 essential to the welfare of the eggs and young. 



In the autumn the birds select some side-hill, apparently no better than 

 any of a dozen or more in the region, where they pass the night, or gather 

 to visit during the day. They seem to be very much attached to that especial 

 side-hill, and will have no other, even at the risk of life. 



Probably the bird is better known throughout the state as the Upland 

 Plover, or Meadow Plover or Sandpiper, or the Whistling Plover. While it 

 is a true sandpiper in structure, its habits resemble the plover group. It 

 gleans rather than probes the mud for food, eating grass seeds and weed vege- 

 tation. It is not wary, generally, but is too confiding. One may approach 

 within a dozen yards of the birds, and even when they finally take wing they 

 are more than likely to fly directly over you. 



LYNDS JONES. 



