38 



BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER. 



Totanus Baitratirii, TEMMINCK. 



Totanus .... JiartramiiOf Bartram. 



THIS Sandpiper ranges from Canada through the United 

 States of America to Mexico, and is common throughout the 

 whole region. Occasional wanderers have arrived in Europe; 

 and one was obtained in Australia, at Botany Bay, as erro- 

 neously so called, being almost destitute of the remarkable 

 vegetation which abounds in other neighbouring districts, as 

 erroneously imagined to be the 'locus penitentise,' the latter 

 word, I fear, more to be translated in the sense of penance 

 than penitence, of those who 'leave their country for their 

 country's good.' 



In England, one specimen was shot in a stubble field njear 

 Warwick, in October, 1851, and was discriminated as being a 

 new British Bird, by Mr. Hugh Reid, of Doncaster. The next 

 was shot in Cambridgeshire, December the 18th., 1854, in a 

 ploughed field between Cambridge and Newmarket: Frederick 

 Tearle, Esq., of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to whom it was sent, 

 has been so kind as to send me an account of its occurrence. 

 A third is stated in the 'Illustrated London News,' by a person 

 signing himself N. S. R., to have been shot by him at Bigswear, 

 on the banks of the Wye, in Gloucestershire, on the 19th. of 

 January, 1855. 



This species appears to frequent inland places, even though 

 devoid of water. It is a bird of graceful form and appearance. 



It flies about, if disturbed, in large circles; and runs quickly 

 on the ground. 



The note is a whistling cry. 



The bird before us appears, in some respects, a connecting 

 link between the Plovers and Sandpipers. Male; length, about 



