486 BIRDS — SCOLOPACID-«. 



In nearly every instance, during their migration, single birds are met 

 with, though late in the fall they sometimes frequent the muddy borders 

 of streams in the company, apparently unsolicited by them, of other 

 Sandpipers. On most occasions, with us, they are rather shy and wary, 

 taking flight while the intruder is at long gun-shot range, and usually 

 flying to a considerable distance before alighting. Sometimes, however, 

 if no desirable feeding spot is near, they return to the same spot and re- 

 sume their occupation as if they had forgotten the interrvqotion. Very 

 often the first indication of their presence is their alarm note which 

 resembles that of the Water Thrush, but is shriller and louder, sounded 

 as they mount to their high and rapid flight. 



I have seen the Solitary Sandpiper here during all the summer months, 

 and once found the young in the care of their parents, on the borders of 

 a small pond, in a pasture surrounded by woodland, four or five miles 

 south of this city. An egg, presented to me by Mr. O. Davie, which was 

 taken in an open field bordering the Scioto Elver, near this city, though 

 without any positive claims, possesses characters which entitle it to 

 consideration, as possibly that of this species. It is of a pointed oval 

 shape, and not nearly so pyriform as are the eggs of most of this family, 

 and measures 1.25 by .88, so that it is smaller than the eggs of the 

 Spotted Sandpiper. The groundcolor is clay-color with a reddish tinge, 

 thickly marked with reddish and blackish-brown. The nest was on the 

 ground in as exposed a locality as is ever frequented by this bird. It 

 contained two eggs, both far advanced in incabation, only one of which 

 was preserved. The fragments of this egg are now in the collection of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. Concerning the eggs of this bird. Dr. Coues 

 (Birds of the Northwest, p. 499) says : 



" The only egga supposed to be ot tbe Solitary Tattler I have seen, are two in the 

 Sinlthsoniau collection from Cleveland, Ohio (Dr. Eirtland). Th» size 1.50 by 1.05 ; the 

 shapiB ordinarily pyriform. The gronnd is clay-colored, without oliTaceona or other 

 shades The markings are heavy and numerous on the larger half of the egg, smaller 

 and fewer elsewhere. They are very dark — quite blaokish-brown — lacking the slightest 

 shade of the rich amber or chocolate which most waders show more or less evidently. 

 The shell-spots are similarly of a darker neutral tint than nsnal. The indentification of 

 theae eggs, however, is open to ([uestion : they may be those of the Eilldeer." 



Dr. Brewer (Ball. Nutt. Orn. Club, iii, 1878, 197), gives the following 

 description, the only authoritative account which I have seen : 



"The egg of this species has remained, to the present time, an unknown and much- 

 desired addition to our cabinets. From time to time eggs claimed to be of this bird 

 have been described, or have had a nominal existence in collections. But these claims 

 have always been open to suspicion and doubt. The eggs have all either had so strong 

 a resemblances to either the Spotted Tattler {Tringoidea tnaoularim) or to that of the 



