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LONG-LEGGED SANDPIPER. 
TrinGéA HimaAnTopPts, Bonap. 
PLATE CCCXLIV. 
I nave often spoken of the great differences as to size and colour 
that are observed in birds of the same species, and which have fre- 
quently given rise to mistakes, insomuch that the male, the female, 
and the young, have been considered as so many distinct species. ‘The 
Long-legged Sandpiper has been treated in this manner, and _ has lat- 
terly reappeared under the name of 7’ringa Douglassii, in the Fauna 
Boreali-Americana of my friends RrcHarpson and Swainson. Bona- 
FARTE was, in truth, the first who described this bird; and although 
some differences might be found between his specimen and the one de- 
scribed in the work just mentioned, they are trifling compared with 
those which I have observed between seven or eight individuals all 
procured from the same flock ata single shot. It is strange that 
neither Bonararre nor Swainson have mentioned the sex of their 
specimen. 
On the morning of the 4th of April 1837, while seated among the 
drift wood that had accumulated on the southern shore of: the island of 
Barataria, forty miles from the south-west pass of the Mississippi, and 
occupied in observing some Pelicans, I saw a flock of about thirty 
Long-legged Sandpipers alight within ten steps of me, near the wa- 
ter. They immediately scattered, following the margin of the retir- 
ing and advancing waves, in search of food, which I could see them 
procure by probing the wet sand in the manner of Curlews, that is, to 
the full length of their bill, holding it for a short time in the sand, as 
if engaged in sucking up what they found. In this way they continued 
feeding on an extended line of shore of about thirty yards, and it was 
pleasing to see the alacrity with which they simultaneously advanced 
and retreated, according to the motions of the water. In about three 
quarters of an hour, during all which time I had watched them with 
attention, they removed a few yards beyond the highest wash of the 
waves, huddled close together, and began to plume and cleanse them- 
selves. All of a sudden they ceased their occupation, stood still, and 
