444 SCOLOPACID/F, 



where many remain to breed, while others continue their 

 course northwards ; the autumn passage southwards com- 

 mencing in August. Mr. Dresser found it abundant in 

 Texas ; and its migrations extend to Mexico, the West 

 Indies and Bermuda, Central America, Colombia, Brazil, 

 Eastern Peru, and Chili. 



Dr. E. Coues says that the nest is a slight depression in 

 the ground with a leaf or two, or a few blades of grass ; and 

 the eggs, which are ordinarily four in number, are laid early 

 in June. Their shape is less pointedly pyriform than that 

 of some species ; the ground is pale clay-colour with under- 

 lying purplish-grey shell-markings, with numerous surface 

 dots of umber-brown ; the average measurements are 1*75 

 by 1-23 in. 



The young, which are generally hatched before the end 

 of June, are somewhat helpless and clumsy, with a top- 

 heavy appearance and disproportionately long legs, until 

 they gain their feathers. The note is a soft mellow whistle, 

 whence its local name of ' Papabote ' ; but when its nesting- 

 places are invaded, this bird utters a harsh and often-repeated 

 scream. Although eminently terrestrial, it not uufrequently 

 alights on fences, posts, limbs of trees, and in certain districts 

 telegraph poles are favourite stands. Its food in summer 

 seems to consist principally of grasshoppers, and at other 

 times is mainly insects, especially beetles, as well as berries. 

 The stomach of the one shot in Cornwall contained remains 

 of the common black beetle, four or five small earth-worms, 

 and a little slimy green herbage ; the bird was loaded with 

 fat, and weighed 6 oz. 2 drs. ; in fact, this species is almost 

 always fat, and in autumn it is delicious eating. 



In the adult in summer the bill is blackish towards the 

 tip, yellowish at the base ; irides dusky ; the forehead, over 

 the eye, neck, and breast, pale rufous marked with small 

 streaks of black, which on the lower part of the breast 

 assume the form of arrow-heads ; chin, orbit of the eye, 

 belly, and vent, white ; hind head and neck rufous, minutely 

 streaked with black; back and scapulars black, the former 

 edged with reddish-brown, the latter with white, the tertials 



