WATER BIRDS. 



Douglas's Stilt Sandpiper. 





Yellow-Shanks Tatler. 



The Dunlin or Redbacked Sandpiper of the United States is found, according to the seasons of the year, 

 throughout the northern hemisphere and in the southern hemisphere to the Cape of Good Hope. They 

 frequent muddy flats feeding on worms and small shell-fish. They are seen running about with great 

 activity. They are shot in great numbers by sportsmen. They are about eight inches long. 



Douglas's Stilt Sandpiper is found in the northern part of America, frequenting interior marshes in the 

 breeding season, and in the autumn resorting in flocks to the flat shores of Hudson's Bay, before migrating 

 to the south. It is ten inches long, of a blackish-brown color and a wader. 



Wilson's Sandpiper is found in the western as well as the eastern shores of our continent. Our sportsmen 

 call them Peeps. They are six or seven inches long, fat and well flavored. They feed partly on vegetable 

 substances and partly on worms and shell-fish. 



The Yellow-Shanks Tatler is very common on our sea-beaches and marshes. He is about ten inches long. 

 He has a sharp whistling note which he repeats when alarmed. He lives on worms and insects and his 

 flesh is excellent. In the latter end of summer this bird is abundantly supplied to the markets of Boston, 

 New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Mr. "Wilson says though these birds do not often penetrate far 

 inland, yet, on the 5th of September, I shot several dozens of them in the meadows of Schuylkill, below 

 Philadelphia. There had been a violent north-east storm a day or two previous, and a large flock of these, 

 accompanied by several species of Tringa, and vast numbers of the Short-tailed Tern, appeared at once 

 among the meadows. As a bird for the table, the Yellow-Shanks, when fat, is in considerable repute. Its 

 chief residence is in the vicinity of the sea, where there are extensive mud-flats. It has a sharp whistle, 

 of three or four notes, when about to take wing and when flying. These birds may be shot down with 

 great facility, if the sportsmen, after the first discharge, will only lie close and permit the wounded birds to 

 flutter without picking them up ; the flock will generally make a circuit, and alight repeatedly, until the 

 greater part of them be shot down. 



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Dublin or Ox-bird 



Wilson's Sandpiper. 



