BIRDS OF NEW YORK 33I 



Bartramia longicauda (Bechstein) 



Bartramian Sandpiper 



Plate 38 



Tringa longicauda Bechstein. Uebers. Lath. Ind. Orn. 1812. 2:453 

 Totanus bartramius DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, P- 247, fig. 209 

 Bartramia longicauda A. O. U, Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 261 



hartra'mia, in honor of John Bartram; longicau'da, Lat. longus, long; cauda, tail 



Description. Bill rather shorter than head, much shorter than tarsus, 

 equal to middle toe, upper mandible grooved for more than f its length 

 and slightly concave; gape wide, reaching below the eyes; tail long, grad- 

 uated; tarsi much longer than middle toe and claw; outer and middle toes 

 webbed at the base; inner toe free; neck and legs long; head small, pigeon- 

 or plover-shaped; no decided sexual or seasonal changes in coloration. 

 Above varied with blackish, ocherous btiff and gray; primaries blackish, 

 the outer one barred with white; tail feathers varying from grayish brown 

 to buff and white at the base of the outer ones, all more or less barred with 

 blackish; under parts white, varied on the foreneck, breast, and sides with 

 blackish, and tinged with btiff; legs light yellowish; bill yellowish at base 

 and below, dusky toward the tip. 



Field marks. The amateur may recognize this species by its general 



buffy brown color, as seen at a distance, its mellow bubbling flight whistle, 



and its preference for dry uplands, rather than the marshy shores. 



Distribution and migration. The Bartramian sandpiper, or Upland 

 plover as the sportsmen call it, is a sximmer resident of eastern Long Island 

 and the plains of inland New York, especially in the counties of Erie, Niagara, 

 Orleans, Monroe, Ontario, Oswego, Madison, Oneida, Lewis, Jefferson, St 

 Lawrence, Clinton, and Rensselaer {see also, Distribution map, p. 20]. 

 Although the species has been diminishing on Long Island, it is holding its 

 own in northern and western New York, and certainly has increased on 

 the plains of northern Erie coiinty and western Monroe county during the 

 last ten years. The spring migration begins from the 13th to the 20th of 

 April and the breeding season is in late May, or early June. About the 20th 

 of July, or even earlier, sometimes as early as the 4th, they gather in small 

 flocks, which are probably augmented by migrants from farther north 

 which continue to arrive until about the loth of August. In western New 

 York the last birds are usually seen about the 25th of August, a few some- 



