SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 85 
use of which, indeed, they do not appear to require much during the 
progress of incubation, or the first weeks after hatching their young, 
when I have seen them rambling in search of food over large open 
fields of sweet potatoes and other vegetables, in the neighbourhood of 
some of our cities. 
While these birds are flying, in the love season, the points of their 
wings are considerably bent down, and they propel themselves by strong 
and decided beats, supporting themselves afterwards by slow tremulous. 
motions of their pinions, to the distance of some yards, when they re- 
peat the strong beats, and thus continue until they realight, uttering 
all the while their well-known notes, so accurately described by my 
friend NutTatt. 
In the autumnal months, along the shores of La Belle Riviere, I 
have often with much delight watched the movements of these birds, 
when I have been surprised to see the pertinacity with which, after 
the first frosts, they would pursue their migration down the stream, 
for on attempting to make them fly the other way, they would rise, 
sometimes to the height of twenty yards, and flying over head or along 
the river, proceed downwards, although at any other time they would 
exhibit no such propensity. They run along the shores, and through 
shallow water, with great nimbleness ; and while courting, the male 
struts before the female, with depressed wings, spreading out his tail 
and trailing it along the ground, in the manner of the Migratory and 
Rufous Thrushes. 
The young become very fat in autumn, and afford delicious eating, 
for as they feed much on worms, aquatic insects, and small mol- 
lusea, their flesh seldom has a fishy taste. The male and female are 
alike, and almost equal in size. The young differ from the old until 
the approach of winter, when, with the exception of their being rather 
smaller, no difference can be perceived. 
This species occurs also in Europe, and a few individuals have been 
shot in England, 
