limicoljE. 329 



As the name of the order indicates — limus, mud; 

 colere, to inhabit or dwell — these birds are mud-dwellers, 

 ground-feeders, and therefore they all, that is the North 

 American sorts, build their nests on the ground. With 

 the birds that nest near the sea margin, the nest may be 

 simply a depression in the beach and, possibly, formed 

 by the foot and body movements of the bird preparatory 

 to the depositing of the eggs. The birds that nest along 

 the inland water courses bestow a little more care on their 

 nests; they are still hollows in the ground, generally 

 pretty well concealed by being placed at the foot of a 

 tree or some grass clump. Most of the birds line these 

 rude nests with grasses, dead leaves, and mosses, some- 

 times loosely laid in, sometimes with intent of weaving. 

 The familiar little spotted sandpiper may actually con- 

 struct a nest, roughly weave it, out of hay and mosses. 

 The green sandpiper, properly an Old World bird, has 

 been noted only twice on the Western Hemisphere; this 

 is the only one of the North American Limicolae known 

 to nest in trees ; where it has been found, this bird nested 

 in trees, in old nests previously used, and presumably 

 nests of other birds. 



The long-billed curlews and Bartram's sandpipers 

 build their nests on the prairies at the foot of grassy 

 hummocks or clumps, often far from water; while the 

 other shore birds are true to the typical traits of the 

 order, and nest along rivers, streams, and ponds. 



The food of the limicolan birds consists of insects, 

 worms, snails, and other soft-bodied animals picked up 

 from the ground surface or probed for in the soft mud 

 along the ponds or rivers. 



Chapman records the woodcocks, the phalaropes, 

 many of the plovers and sandpipers, and the jack curlew 



