( <eIny 
SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 
TOTANUS MACULARIUS, TEMM. 
PLATE CCCX. Mate anp Femate. 
In the course of my last journey in search of information respect- 
ing the birds which at one season or other are found within the limits 
of the United States, I observed so vast a number of them in Texas. 
that I almost concluded that more than two-thirds of our species oc- 
cur there. Among them I observed the beautiful bird now before you. 
The Spotted Sandpiper has a wonderfully extensive range, for I 
have met with it not only in most parts of the United States, but also on 
the shores of Labrador, where, on the 17th June 1833, I found it breed- 
ing. On the 29th of July, the young were fully fledged, and scamper- 
ing over the rocks about us, amid the putrid and drying cod-fish. In 
that country it breeds later by three months than in Texas; for on 
the head waters of Buffalo Bayou, about sixty miles from the margin 
of the Mexican Gulf, I saw broods already well grown on the 5th of 
May 1837. On the same day of the same month in 1832, a similar occur- 
rence happened on an island near Indian Key, on the south-east coast 
of Florida. In Newfoundland, on the other hand, the young were just 
fully fledged on the 11th of August 1833. It appears strange that 
none were observed by Dr Ricuarpson on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, 
or in the interior of that country. They are quite abundant along the 
margins of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their tributaries, where they 
remain until driven off by the cold, and return about the beginning of 
April, at which period the Purple Martin also makes its appearance. 
In our Middle Districts, they arrive a fortnight later. On the Island 
of Jestico, in the Gulf of St Lawrence, about twenty pairs had nests 
and eggs on the 11th of June; and the air was filled with the pleasing 
sound of their voices while we remained there. The nests were 
placed among the tall slender grass that covered the southern part of 
the island. They were more bulky and more neatly constructed than 
any that I have examined southward of the Gulf of St Lawrence ; and 
yet they were not to be compared with those found in Labrador, where, 
in every instance they were concealed under ledges of rocks extend- 
VOL. Iv. ¥F 
