368 The Plover-like Birds 



throat and belly are dull whitish or very pale buff; the outer primary is white- 

 barred. The habits of this bird are peculiar for a so-called wader, since it ap- 

 pears rather to shun water and to spend its life mainly on open prairies, meadows, 

 and pastures, where 'its plumage so harmonizes with the surroundings that it 

 cannot be detected at a little distance. It is a rather shy bird, difficult to approach 

 closely, and is observed singly or in pairs in summer, though in winter it con- 

 gregates in some parts of its range in considerable flocks. It feeds on insects 

 of various kinds, running over the ground with great rapidity, and when pushed 

 to flight using its wings with effective effort. As it alights it has the habit of 

 stretching its wings high over the back before settling them in place. It has 

 various notes, such as a soft, double-noted whistle uttered when it is flushed, and 

 a "song" which Langille calls a "prolonged, mournful, mellow whistle, more 

 like the whistling of wind than a bird's voice." 



Tip-up. The familiar little Spotted Sandpiper, Tip-up, or Peet-weet (Actitis 

 macularia) of temperate North America is almost too well known to need ex- 

 tended description. Briefly it may be described as seven and a half or eight inches 

 long, with long, pointed wings and a rather short, rounded tail, the color above 

 being a brownish olive-green with a metallic or bronzy luster, marked with 

 numerous lines and irregular spots of brownish black, a line over the eye and the 

 entire under parts being white covered with numerous round and oval spots of 

 brownish black; the wings are brown with a greenish luster and considerable 

 white. While this species is found to some extent along the coasts, it is very 

 generally distributed throughout the country in summer, hardly a lake, pond, 

 or stream being without its pairs of Tip-ups. When startled it flies to a short 

 distance, generally across the small stream, uttering its plaintive peet-weet, peet- 

 weet, and nervously teetering up and down and flirting the tail, or running swiftly 

 along the shore. A certain territory along shores or streams appears to be 

 allotted to an individual or pair, much as the Dippers divide up their haunts, and 

 after one is urged to several short flights which apparently take it to the border 

 of its domain, it doubles back to the starting point. 



Curlews and Whimbrels. The last members of this group that we shall 

 have space to mention are the Curlews and Whimbrels (Numenius}, of which 

 there are some nine or ten living and some five or six fossil forms -known. They 

 are among the largest of the group, some exceeding two feet in length, with the 

 long legs covered in front with transverse scutella and on the sides and back with 

 small, hexagonal scales, while the very long bill is strongly arched or decurved for 

 the terminal half, the wing being of moderate length and pointed, and the tail 

 rather short and squared. The plumage is largely of a spotted and mottled brown 

 and buff. Four species inhabit North America, a fifth occurring accidentally in 

 Greenland, among the best-known being the Long-billed Curlew (AT. americanus), 

 which ranges throughout the whole of North America. It is our largest species, 

 ranging from twenty to twenty-six inches, and may otherwise be distinguished 

 by the rusty cinnamon-colored secondaries and quills, and the deep cinnamon, 

 unbarred axillaries. They frequent marshy and muddy shores of lakes and ponds, 

 but are by no means confined to these locations, being often observed on exten- 



