DOUGLAS'S SANDPIPER. 



333 



rovers are ready to give the alarm. At first a slender peep is heart*, 

 which is then followed by two or three others, and presently peet 'pip 

 pip 'p'p murmurs in a lisping whistle through the quailing ranks, aa 

 hey rise swarming on the wing, and inevitably entice with them their 

 larger but less watchful associates. 



DOUGLAS'S STILT SANDPIPER. 



According to Dr. Kichardson, this species is not uncommon in tb 

 fur countries of 

 Upper Canada, to 

 the 60th parallel, 

 and perhaps still 

 further north. It 

 exhibits the usual 

 habits of the genus 

 Tringa^ frequents 

 the interior marshes 

 in the breeding 

 season, and in the 

 antumn resorts in 

 flocks to the flat 

 ahorep of Hudson's 

 Bay, previous to 

 taking its departure 

 for the south. 



DOUGLAS'S 8TIL* SANDPIPER. 



OF THE PLOVEBS IN GENERAL. 



THE Plovers have a straight, somewhat cylindrical and obtuse bilL 

 seldom longer than the head. The feet are formed for running, wiia 

 three toes, all placed forward. 



The Plovers generally associate in small flocks, and the wWia 

 emigrate in companies of greater or less extent ; the young colit*;* 

 together, pursuing their route apart from the old, and after their (id- 

 parture. They live principally upon small worms, and aquatic insects. 

 The common species, and the Guignard, frequent the marshes and 

 muddy borders of the larger and smaller rivers, and rarely frequent 

 sea-shores ; the other species live more habitually upon the coasts, and 

 near the outlets of streams. The moult in most of the species is 

 double, and the sexes are scarcely distinguishable by any exterior 

 jiarkings, except in the C. cantianus, in which the moult is only 

 annual, and the sexes distinguishable by their livery. Some exotio 

 species of the genus bear spines upon the shoulders of the wings, 

 being, in fact, an approach towards the development of claws on the 

 anterior extremities 1 several other species have fleshy excrescences 

 upon the head or mandibles. 



