146 NOTES ON THE 
sions from more northern regions have more than filled their 
former places. By the middle of October, the northern, cen- 
tral portions, or perhaps I should say, the western central, 
longitudinal, have very large numbers of these birds, occupy- 
ing the high or more sandy tracts. These afford them an 
abundance of their favorite food, the grasshoppers, to which 
may be added insects of several other species, like crickets and 
beetles, with land snails, and some species of berries. 
When moving from one section to another, and when in their 
migrations they fly very high, and generally in a V-shaped 
flock, with the point of the angle foremost, after the manner of 
the geese, but not as persistently. 
All leave the State by the l0th of October, a part of them a 
little earlier oftentimes. Accounted a marsh bird along the 
Atlantic coast, I find them quite as frequently on the dry prai- 
ries, far removed from any considerable marshes or ponds. 
They frequent plowed fields, and dry, extensive flats which 
have previously been overflowed, and have become dry again. 
This suggests earth worms, and certain forms of terrestrial 
mollusea, as preferred food. Their nests have been found in 
many sections, but uniformly on dry prairies so far as I have 
known. Like most others of the family, the structure is very 
primitive, consisting of a small quantity of grass, circularly 
disposed in a hollow made by the bird in the ground, under the 
lea of a few rank weeds, or a bunch of coarse grass. The 
eggs are four in number, rather of a drab, or clay color. I 
think they might sometimes be called buff-colored, when hay- 
ing a shade of olivaceous. They are uniformly spotted with 
umber of several shades, more pronounced about the larger 
end. 
In form they are decidedly gallinaceous, differing in this 
markedly from most Scolopacine species. They rear but a 
single brood, the nest for which is built from the 20th to the 
30th of May. In their fall migrations most of them depart be- 
fore the 25th of October, yet I have met with a few as late as 
the 10th of November. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill very long, much curved; upper mandible longer, some- 
what knobbed at the tip; wing rather long; legs moderate; toes 
united at the base; entire upper parts paler rufous tinged with 
ashy; each feather with transverse and confluent bands of 
brownish-black, most numerous and predominating on the back 
and scapulars; secondary quills, under wing coverts and axil- 
