SCOLOPACID.K — TIIK SNIPE FAMILY— MICROPALAMA. 



203 



The Stilt Siiii(l])i|HM' occiir.s iis a niif,M'!Uit in tlic iiitcvior, eHiH'ciully in the spring. 

 I'rofessor Kunilicn has procured it in Soutlii'rn AViscoiisin, and tiic Natural History 

 Society of IJustou have received from him several tine specimens in the breeding- 

 l)lumaf,'e. Professor l\ II. Snow, of Lawrence, Kansas, informs us that some six or 

 eight specimens were taken in that neighl)orhoo(l in Septcmher, 1.S74. 



Kichardson refers to this species as the Doughis Sandpiper, and mentions that it 

 is not uncommon in the Fur ('ountry up to, and ])rol)al)ly beyond, the (iOth parallel. 

 It frcfiuents the interior in the breeding-season, and resorts to the flat shores of IIiul- 

 SDu's Hay in the autumn, previous to taking its departure south. It was found by Mi: 

 MacFarlane bre»Hling on the Arctic coast. This species is said by Leotaud to be a 

 u'.'ver-failing visitant of Trinidad, where it arrives early in August, and, like nearly 

 all the other migratory Waders, leaves in October. It keeps apart from other 

 species, or only associattis with the Totnniis ffan'ipes, which it is said to resemble in 

 its habits and movements. It is als(j given, in the list ])ublished by Mr. Lawrence, 

 as one of the birds observed by Mr. A. A. .lulien, on the Island of Sombrero, West 

 Indies. 



According to (lirand, tliis species, known on Long Island as the Long-legged Saud- 

 jiijier, is not common there. In all his excursions he only obtained two individuals, 

 both of which i»rovcd to be nudes. These were shot in a large meadow lying on tlie_ 

 South Bay, and known as Cedar Island. The flrst he procured in the latter part of 

 August, 1840; the other in the early part of Septend)er in the following year. In 

 both instances the birds were in company with a single Pectoral Sandpiper. The 

 first he shot before it alighted, and h;ul no oi>portunity to observe its habits. The 

 second alighted among his decoys while he was lying at a salt-pond in the meadow. 

 It walked about with an erect and graceful gait, occasionally stooping to probe the 

 soft mud for worms and minute shellHsh, i)articles of which, on dissection, he found 

 in its stomach. After spending a few minutes within reach of his gun, it became sud- 

 licnly alarmed, uttered a shrill note, and took wing ; as it passed from him he brought 

 it down. An experienceil Hay-num. who was on the meadow at the time, informed 

 Mr. Giraud that, in the course of many years" shooting, he had met with only a few 

 stragglers, and had always looked upon them as hybrids. Although somewhat 

 resembling in j)lumage the Red-breasted Snipe, the two are so unlike in size, that 

 Mr. Giraud regiirds it as hardly possible that they ('ould ever be mistaken for each 

 other. As he several times found these birds in the New York market — from six to 

 eight on a string — it is very evident that wandering flocks occasionally visit the 

 hIku'cs of Long Island. 



Mr. Dresser states that shortly after his arrival at Matamoras, while out shooting 

 at the lagoon, he procured a specimen of this Sandpiper, which was then quite new 

 to liim. During his st<ay at Matamoras he shot several more Stilt Sandpipers, meeting 

 with them far oftener as the different kinds of birds of this family began to arrive 

 from the uortli, and generally fluding them in company with the Macrorhamphus 

 ijr'iseus. When out hunting Snipe, on the 2()th of November, 1863, near San Antonio, 

 lie shot another of these birds. 



Mr. Audubon states that on the 4th of A]iril, 1847, on the Island of Barataria, forty 

 miles from the southwest pass of tlie Jlississippi, he saw a flock of about thirty 

 Long-legged Sandpijiers alight, within ten stejjs of him, near the water. They soon 

 scattered, following the margin of the advancing and retiring waves in search of food, 

 which they procured by probing the wet sand in the manner of the Curlews. They 

 inserted the full length of their bills in the sand, holding it there for some little time, 

 as if engaged in sucking up what they had found. In this way they contir'-^d feed- 



