3S8 BARTRAM'S XAWDP1PKR. 



HABITS. 



The occurrence of the Ruff which is a well-known European bird, in North America, 

 is quite rare but it has now been taken here too often to be regarded as a mere straggler, 

 and the same remarks may refer to this species that I have applied to ih<; Curlew Sand- 

 piper, regarding its breeding on our side of the Atlantic but in high latitudes. Nuttall, 

 in 1834, was the first to record it from North America. Then Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence, 

 writing in Birds of North America, in 1858, gives it as accidental on Long Island, and 

 again records it in- his Birds of New York in 1866. Mr G. A. Boardman found one or two 

 at Calais but on the New Brunswick side of the St. Croix. Mr. William Brewster obtained 

 a female from the Newburyport marshes, on the twentieth of May, 1871. This is given, 

 upon Prof. Baird's authority, as being the sixth specimen ever obtained in North America. 

 Mr. Brcwster's bird had the ovaries quite well developed and would have laid within two 

 or, three weeks. On the tenth of November, 1872, Dr. Theo. Jasper took one thirty miles 

 east of Columbus, Ohio, which is, I think, the only specimen ever taken so far in the in- 

 terior. Mr. Brewster, on the eighth of September, 1874, Avas fortunate enough to obtain 

 another female at Upton, Maine. As I write, I have a fine specimen before me, obtained at 

 Chatham, Massachusetts, about the fifteenth of September of the present year, 1880. This 

 is a female of the year and Mr. Gordon Plummer has secured it for his fine collection of 

 North American birds. At, the suggestion of Mr. W. B. Dowse, Mr. Plummer has kindly 

 forwarded the specimen to me for examination and identification, and I have based my 

 above given description of the young, upon this specimen which I believe is the ninth re- 

 corded as having been taken in North America, the third from New England, and the sec- 

 ond from Massachusetts. It is worthy of note, that none of the specimens yet taken on the 

 continent, have the peculiar, elongated feathers about the neck as seen in European male 

 birds. 



GENUS VIII. ACTITURUS. THE HIGHLAND SANDPIPERS. 



GEN. Cn. Bill, about as long as head, a little curved, slender, and not expanded at tip. Gape, wide. Head, large and 

 neck, small. 



The sternum is narrow, about as wide as height of keel which doe-; not exceed the length of coracoids. Outer margin- 

 al indentations, wide and three times as deep as inner. Legs, long and stout. Tail, long and rounded. The stomach is 

 oval in form, quite muscular, and lined with a hard, finely rugose membrane. The proventriculus is large. The intestines 

 are small but long, and the coeea rather short, with blind end-i dilatad. The sterno-treachealis is quite stout and there is 

 a weak bronchialis, but no other laryngeal mascles. Tympaniform membrane, present but there is no os transversale. Sex- 

 es similar. There is but one species within our limits. 



ACTITURUS BARTRAMIUS. 



Bartram's Sandpiper. f 

 Actiturus Bartramius LINN., Box., Saggio; 1831. 



, DESCRIPTION. 



SP. Cn. Form, rather slender. Size, large. Tongue, not long, thin, wide at base, then narrowing gradually to tip 

 which is pointed. 



Coum. Adult. Above, dark-brown, having a greenish gloss, with every feather, excepting primaries which are m.it- 

 tled and banded with whitish on the inner webs, edged with yellowish-ash and rufous. Rump, unmarked. Outer upper 

 tail coverts, banded with yellowish-ash. Tail, ashy-buff, darker in the center, tipped with white and banded with dark- 

 brown. Beneath, yellowish-white, banded on under wing coverts and axillnrics, and spotted, in arrow-shaped murks, on 

 neck, breast, and sides, with dark-brown. 



Young. Similar to the adult, but more yellowish above, the secondaries and inner primaries are tipped with white. 

 Bill, iris, and feet, brown, in all stages. 



