BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER. 87 



meadows, and such like places. They run with great 

 rapidity, sometimes spreading their tail, and dropping 

 their wings, as birds do who wish to decoy you from 

 their nest ; when they alight, they remain fixed, stand 

 very erect, and have two or three sharp whistling 

 notes as they mount to fly. They are remarkable 

 plump birds, weighing upwards of three quarters of a 

 pound; their flesh is superior, in point of delicacy, 

 tenderness, and flavour, to any other of the tribe with 

 which I am acquainted. 



This species is twelve inches long, and twenty-one 

 in extent ; the bill is an inch and a half long, slightly 

 bent downwards, and wrinkled at the base, the upper 

 mandible, black on its ridge, the lower, as well as the 

 edge of the upper, of a fine yellow ; front, stripe over 

 the eye, neck, and Breast, pale ferruginous, marked 

 with small streaks of black, which, on the lower part 

 of the breast, assume the form of arrow heads ; crown, 

 black, the plumage slightly skirted with whitish ; chin, 

 orbit of the eye, whole belly, and vent, pure white ; 

 hind head, and neck above, ferruginous, minutely 

 streaked with black ; back and scapulars, black, the 

 former, slightly skirted with ferruginous, the latter, 

 with white ; tertials, black, bordered with \vhite ; 

 primaries, plain black ; shaft of the exterior quill, 

 snowy, its inner vane, elegantly pectinated with white j 

 secondaries, pale brown, spotted on their outer vanes, 

 with black, and tipt with white ; greater coverts, 

 dusky, edged with pale ferruginous, and spotted with 

 black; lesser coverts, pale ferruginous, each feather 

 broadly bordered with white, within which is a con- 

 centric semicircle of black ; rump, and tail-coverts, 

 deep brown black, slightly bordered with white ; tail, 

 tapering, of a pale brown orange colour, beautifully 

 spotted with black, the middle feathers centred with 

 dusky ; legs, yellow, tinged with green ; the outer toe 

 joined to the middle by a membrane ; lining of the 

 wings, elegantly barred with black and white ; iris of 

 of the eye, dark, or blue black, eye, very large. The 

 male and female are nearly alike. 



