BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
57 
Plate XL 
TKINGOIDES MACULAKIUS, Gray. 
Spotted Sandpiper. 
The Spotted Sandpiper has an extended and varied distribution 
throughout North America. Unlike most of its allies, it breeds with equal 
readiness wherever found, and is one of the best known and most abundant 
of all its tribe. 
From its winter-quarters in the Southern States, and also in the West 
Indies and Central and South America, to Brazil, it takes up the line of 
migration about the tenth of April, and gradually spreads itself over 
nearly the whole country as far north as Labrador and Fort Yukon. 
According to Mr. Trippe, it is the only species of its family that 
resorts to the mountains of Colorado. Here, it arrives early in May, and 
departs in September. All the larger streams, to an altitude of 8,000 or 
9,000 feet, are visited, and, even, in some instances, the shores of the lakes 
near the timber line. 
On their first arrival, the banks of large rivers are frequented ; but 
as the season advances, many trace their way into the interior, along the 
courses of our creeks and rivulets. Their sole object now is the acquire- 
ment of food. For this purpose, a life of solitude is j^referable to any 
other. Although three or four individuals may frequently be discovered 
together upon the same feeding-grounds, yet careful and repeated observa- 
tions have convinced us that this occurrence is merely accidental, and not 
dictated by a desire for company. At such times, the birds become so 
deeply absorbed in the business before them, that the a^iju’oach of human 
beings is unobserved, and the actors are only aroused from the stolidity 
