604 BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. 
another obtained at Malta on November 17th 1865 by Mr. C. A. 
Wright, who afterwards presented it to the Museum at Florence. 
In America this species breeds from Virginia northward to Nova 
Scotia, and even as far as Fort Yukon, Alaska; while it has been 
recorded from Colville Bay, British Columbia, though otherwise 
unknown to the west of ‘the great divide.’ In Canada it is par- 
ticularly abundant on the plains of the Saskatchewan ; and in the 
United States it is generally distributed from Pennsylvania and 
Illinois westward to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, though not 
very numerous nowadays (according to Mr. Cory) on the Atlantic 
coast. On the spring migration large flocks pass through Kansas, 
Nebraska, Minnesota and Dakota ; while the return passage south- 
ward commences as early as July and continues during the autumn ; 
extending to the Bermudas, the Southern States, Mexico and the 
West Indies, as well as through tropical America, to Argentina on the 
east side and Chile on the west. 
Hilly grass-lands are the favourite haunts of this bird, for 
which reason it is known in the United States as the Upland., 
Field- or Grass-Plover. The nest is a mere hollow—often in a 
ploughed field—with only a few grass stems or leaves to keep the 
eggs from the damp soil; these, 4 in number, and laid early in 
June, are pinkish clay-colour blotched with pale purple and umber- 
brown . measurements 1°8 by 1°35 in. Only one brood is rearedin 
the year, and the young are somewhat helpless and clumsy. The 
note is a soft mellow whistle, whence the bird derives its Louisiana 
name of “‘Papabot.” The food, which consists of beetles, grasshoppers 
and other insects, small snails, earth-worms &c., appears to be very 
fattening, and in autumn the bird is much prized by epicures. 
The adult in summer has the crown blackish, with a median line 
of buff, feathers of the upper parts edged with warm buff, and 
thickly streaked and barred with black ; inner web of 1st primary 
white, with conspicuous dusky bars; tail (long and wedge-shaped 
when closed) pale orange-buff barred with black and broadly 
tipped with white, except the central pair of feathers which are chiefly 
ash-brown ; neck and breast buff, with blackish arrow-shaped mark- 
ings on the lower breast ; chin, belly and vent white ; axillaries and 
under-wing barred with ash-brown and white. Length 11°5 in. 
(bill 1°2), wing 6°6 in. The female is slightly larger than the 
male. In winter the plumage has an ochraceous tint; while 
immature birds have the feathers of the back more margined with 
rufous-buff than the adults. It will be observed that the tail is barred 
as in Zotanus, and is not plain as in Zringa. 
