40 



THE NlDIOLOGIST. 



and these in the hands of ignorant, though 

 not men of bad intentions, supplied any 

 number of birds, and of many kinds. But 

 I did not get my supply of arsenic in time 

 to preserve a single specimen out of the big 

 pile of Man-o'-\Vars; slaughtered uselessly, 

 but not by my orders. Moreover, the 

 trading mice, as thej- are called, secured 

 entrance to ni)' smaller bird skins and 

 gnawed off the bills and legs of nearly all 

 of them. And fellow-collectors, this is 

 what I call Hard Luck. 



Kalamazoo, Michigan. 



Habits of the Solitary Sandpiper. 



THE following item, taken from the 

 manuscript of my coming list of 

 "Maryland Birds," will answer the 

 pertinent question of Mr. D. A. Cohen in 

 an earlier issue of The Nidiologist — "Do 

 Wading Birds Swim?" It refers to Totaiius 

 solitarius, the Solitary Sandpiper, and runs 

 as follows: 



May 22. 1893. — At head of a small valley 

 running south-west from south end of Long 

 Green Valley, near its head and close to 

 divide from Dulaney's Valley, in Baltimore 

 county, I came across one of these birds 

 feeding in an ice pond with but little water 

 in it, it being customary to draw the water 

 off in this section as soon as the ice is har- 

 vested on account of the musk rats dam- 

 aging the banks. Calling my dogs in and 

 advancing cautiously along the fence, I 

 got within thirty feet of the bird and ob- 

 served it carefully through a strong field- 

 glass for about half an hour, the water 

 being perfectly clear; and its motions below 

 the surface were as clearly visible as tho.se 

 above. It waded with a dainty step, some- 

 times having perceptibly to pull its feet out 

 of the mud, and once when it got in deeper 

 water swam a few feet with a hurried stroke. 

 Sinall in.sects on or in the water, on bottom, 

 on weed stems, or on Ihe bank, it swallowed 

 at once. Tiny tadpoles it worked a second 

 between mandibles and dipped a couple of 



times in the water, apparently to get them 

 head first. Before swallowing a larger one 

 it immediately ran ashore with it and 

 knocked it on the ground for some little 

 time before swallowing it. In wading it 

 sometimes had the water up to its breast 

 and belly. Generally not more than the 

 bill was immersed, but often the head, oc- 

 casionally the neck, and once half the body. 

 F. C. Kirk WOOD. 

 Baltimore, Md. 



And Perchers Stoim Also. 



1 THINK that of our fraternity of bird 

 ob.servers, those who read the NiD. are 

 satisfied, through the kindness of several 

 contributors, that many waders do, and all 

 waders may, swim when put to desperate 

 straits for self-preservation. 



Near Trowbridge, in Ingham county, I 

 was out with my collecting: box, note-book 

 and gun, one afternoon in early May, when 

 I came upon a Catbird, G. carolinensis , 

 which seemed to be in unusually high 

 plumage. Thinking to procure it for my 

 cabinet I fired, and the bird fluttered to the 

 ground, winged, though as lively upon its 

 feet as ever. 



This occurred in a woodland near the 

 edge of a stagnant pond of drainage water, 

 around which a fringe of willow bushes 

 grew. In its deepest part the water must 

 have been two feet. 



Upon approaching the bird I was, to say 

 the least, greatly surprised to see it hop 

 away and take straight to the water. Nor 

 did it stop among the among the bushes at 

 the edge, but submerged, excepting the 

 neck, back and wings, it made it way 

 with some rapidity across the pond, four 

 rods at least, to the other side. 



Whether or not it used its feet in this 

 performance I am unable to positively state, 

 but I am of the opinion that such was not 

 the case. The means of locomotion seemed 

 to be the wings, which were vibrated with 



