SOLITARY SANDPIPER. 577 



diana I have seen them in early spring, during rainy weather, wading and 

 running through tlie water, on the very foot-path before me, for eight or 

 ten yards at a time. When flushed, they would fly in a semicircle close 

 over the ground, and re-alight at the distance of a hundred yards or so on 

 the same path. Not one of the species was observed in Labrador or New- 

 foundland by my party ; and my friend Thomas MacCulloch informs 

 me that only a few single birds are seen near Pictou, and that in autumn, 

 when they keep in marshy grounds in the neighbourhood of the sea. 



The flight of the Solitary Sandpiper is swift and protracted. It moves 

 in a zigzag manner, and at times makes its way through the woods with 

 surprising ease, seldom leaving the starting place without uttering a clear 

 and pleasant tweet. In re-alighting it pitches downwards like the Com- 

 mon Snipe. On the ground they are very active, and at times so in- 

 different to the approach of man, that they will merely fly across or around 

 a small pond for a considerable time, and, if shot at and not touched, 

 they will be sure to be found in the same place a few hours after. Its 

 alighting on trees has often appeared to me as singular as that of Bar- 

 tram's Snipe and the Semipalmated species. The Solitary Snipe is, how- 

 ever, the most expert at catching insects on the wing, especially the smaller 

 kinds of dragon-flies, which it chases from the sticks on which they alight, 

 and generally seizes before they have flown across the little ponds, which are 

 the favourite place of resort of this species. I have found their stomachs 

 filled with aquatic insects, caterpillars of various kinds, and black spiders 

 of considerable size. 



I consider this bird to be a constant resident in the United States, 

 although it ranges over a great space in summer and winter. Scarcely 

 any difference is observable in the sexes ; and I am of opinion that the 

 young acquire their full plumage the first spring. 



ToTANUs CHLOBOPYGius, Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States 

 p. .^$25 Swains, and Richards. Fauna Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 393. 



Solitary Sandpiper, Tringa solitaria, Wils. Amer. Omith. vo\. vii. p, 53. pi, 58. 

 fig. 3. 



Green-rump Tatler, Nnttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 159. 



Adult Male. Plate CCLXXXIX. Fig. 1. 



Bill a little longer than the head, very slender, subcylindrical, straight, 



VOL. III. o o 



