416 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



and tipped with rufous ; very young have upper parts light-gray, with a longitudinal 

 band on the head and back, black; under parts white. 



Total length, about nine and a half inches; wing, six and a half inches; tail, 

 three and a half inches. 



Hob. North America to the Arctic regions, Mexico, South America. 



This species is pretty generally distributed throughout 

 New England as a summer resident. It is not common in 

 any localities, but seems to be found in pairs all along our 

 seacoast; and, although occasionally breeding in the inte- 

 rior of these States, in the neighborhood of large tracts of 

 water, it is almost exclusively found, during the greater 

 part of the year, in moist fields and meadows and sandy 

 pastures, within a few miles of the sea. Wilson describes 

 its habits as follows : 



" This restless and noisy bird is known to almost every inhabi- 

 tant of the United States, being a common and pretty constant 

 resident. During the severity of the winter, when snow covers 

 the ground, it retreats to the seashore, where it is found at all 

 seasons ; but no sooner have the rivers opened, than its shrill 

 note is again heard, either roaming about high in air, tracing the 

 shore of the river, or running amidst the watery flats and meadows. 

 As spring advances, it resorts to the newly ploughed fields, or level 

 plains bare of grass, interspersed with shallow pools ; or, in the 

 vicinity of the sea, dry, bare, sandy fields. In some such situation 

 it generally chooses to breed, about the beginning of May. The 

 nest is usually slight, a mere hollow, with such materials drawn in 

 around it as happen to be near, such as bits of sticks, straw, peb- 

 bles, or earth. In one instance, I found the nest of the bird 

 paved with fragments of clam and oyster shells, and very neatly 

 surrounded with a mound, or border, of the same, placed in a very 

 close and curious manner. In some cases, there is no vestige 

 whatever of a nest. The eggs are usually four, of a bright rich 

 cream or yellowish-clay color, thickly marked with blotches of 

 black. They are large for the size of the bird, measuring more 

 than an inch and a half in length, and a full inch in width, taper- 

 ing to a narrow point at the great end. 



"Nothing can exceed the. alarm and anxiety of these birds 

 during the breeding season. Their cries of kill-deer, kill-deer, as 



