SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. HI 



size and proportions enough to induce persons having nothing better 

 than skins, to imagine that several species might be made out of them. 



About the period when these birds prepare to return southward, they 

 congregate in large flocks, the young separate from the old. In La- 

 brador this takes place from the beginning to the middle of August. 

 There I found this species dispersed in pairs, and having nests, early 

 in June ; but all our endeavours to procure any were fruitless, so cun- 

 ningly had they disposed of them, and so efiectually did they mislead 

 us by squatting on the moss for several minutes at a time, as if sitting 

 on their eggs. On our approaching them on such occasions, they would 

 run or fly ofi^ to a short distance, in various directions, and renew their 

 wiles. 



I have often seen considerable flocks of this species along the shores 

 of the Ohio and Mississippi during autumn, and have reason to believe 

 that some are also to be found then on the Missouri. At this season, 

 when they feed on fresh-water insects, worms, and small coleoptera, 

 they are very fat, and afibrd excellent eating ; which is rarely the case 

 when they are along the sea-shores, as their food then consists of small 

 shell-fish and marine insects, for which they are often seen probing the 

 sands in the manner of Curlews. They are active, quarrelsome, and impa- 

 tient, moving from one spot to another unexpectedly, and perhaps re- 

 turning to the same place a few minutes after. On taking wing, they 

 utter their tweet tweet simultaneously, and whilst on the ground emit 

 murmuring sounds peculiar to themselves. Their flight is swift and 

 well-sustained, and when alarmed, or previous to alighting, their evo- 

 lutions through the air are very pleasing to the beholder^ 



Semipalmated Sandpiper, Tringa semipalmata, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. 



p. 131, pi, 63, fig. 4. 

 Tringa semipalmata, Ch. Bonap., Synops. of Birds of United States, p. 316. 

 Semipalmated Sandpiper, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 136. 



Bill as long the head, slender, straight, compressed, tapering from 

 the base to near the point, which is slightly swelled, but with the tip 

 rather acute. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge 

 narrow and convex, a little broader and flattened towards the end, the 

 sides sloping, with the nasal groove extending to near its tip ; lower 

 mandible with the angle very long and narrow, the outline straight, 



