SCOLOPAC'ID.K — TIIK SXIPE I'.miLY — MICKoPAKAM A. 203 



The Stilt Sandpiper occurs as a migrant in the interior, especially in the spring. 

 Professor Kumlien has procured it in Southern Wisconsila, and the Xatural History 

 Society of Boston have received from him several fine specimens in the breeding- 

 plumage. Professor F. H. Snow, of Lawrence, Kansas, informs us that some six or 

 eight specimens Avere taken in that neighborhood in September, 1 S74. 



Richardson refers to this species as the Douglas Sandpiper, and mentions that it 

 is not uncommon in the Fur Country up to, and probably beyond, the (iOth parallel. 

 It frequents the interior in tlie breeding-season, and resorts to the Hat sliores of Hud- 

 son's Bay in the autumn, previous to taking its departure south. It was found by Mr. 

 MacFarlane In-eeding on tlie Arctic coast. This species is said by Leotaud to be a 

 never-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 associates with the Totwnus flavlpes, which it is said to resemble in 

 its habits and movements. It is also given, in the list published by Mr. Lawrence, 

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

 Indies. 



According to Giraixd, this species, known on Long Island as the Long-legged Sand- 

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

 both of which proved to be males. These were shot in a large meadow lying on the 

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

 August, 1840 ; the other in the early part of September in the following year. In 

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

 first he shot before it alighted, and had no opportunity to observe its habits. The 

 second aliglited 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 shellfish, particles of which, on dissection, he found 

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

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

 it down. An experienced Bay-man, 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 plumage the Red-breasted Sni])e. the two are so unlike in size, that 

 Mr. Giraud regards it as hardly jiossible that they could ever be mistaken for each 

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

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

 shores 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 Sandpijier, which was then quite new 

 to him. During his stay 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 north, and generally finding them in company with the Macrorhamphus 

 r/risetis. When out hunting Snipe, on the 20th of Xovember, 1863, near San Antonio, 

 he shot another of these birds. 



Mr. Audubon states that on the 4th of April, 1847, on the Island of Barataria, forty 

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

 Long-legged Sandpipers alight, within ten steps 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 saiid in the manner of the Curlews. They 

 inserted the fuU 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 continued feed- 



