BIRDS NOT TRUE GAME. 307 



distinction. The Bartram's sandpiper, Totanus Bar- 

 tramiuS) unlike most of its relatives, is rarely, if ever, 

 found on the sea-shore, frequenting upland downs, sheep- 

 walks, and large short-grassed pastures in the interior, 

 feeding on grasshoppers, and other small insects, snails, 

 worms, grass seeds, and many wild fruits and berries, and 

 becoming' excessively fat, tender, and succulent. 



It is often found in company with the golden plover, 

 which is frequently confounded with it under the name of 

 the frost bird, and which, in those feeding grounds, becomes 

 greatly improved in flesh and condition. 



The upland plover is, in the opinion of judges with 

 whom I fully agree, the most delicate and delicious of all 

 wild birds. It is often so fat that the breast bursts open 

 on its striking the ground when shot, and the meat is the 

 richest and most succulent that can be imagined. Its 

 peculiar excellences are, that it never clogs ; it is never 

 greasy, nor has that rank, half-oily, half-fishy flavor, which 

 is common, more or less, to all birds which feed on the salt 

 marshes, and which is not entirely absent from the golden 

 plover, even when he feeds on the upland. 



The Bartram's sandpiper is about the size of the 

 common pigeon, though far more gracefully and slenderly 

 made, with extremely long pointed wings, and a slight re- 

 curved bill. It is a shy, wary bird, and can hardly be 

 approached on the open plains or downs which it frequents, 

 within gunshot, unless under cover of some artifice or 

 quaint device. I have occasionally walked up to it, near 

 enough to kill a few by aid of Eley's green wild-fowl 

 cartridges, on the large open pastures in the vicinity of 



