400 Field Museum of Natural History — Zoology, Vol. IX. 



numbers of them were shot by market hunters, until now it is almost 

 a rare bird in localities where it was once exceedingly numerous. 



Kumlien and Hollister state (Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, p. 44): 

 " Young still unable or barely able to fly were taken on several oc- 

 casions. There is positively no question that considerable numbers 

 bred in Wisconsin from 1865 to 1875 and in 1872 and 1873, as far south 

 as Lake Koshkonong. In August the fully fledged young return from 

 the north in great flocks." This is out of its usual breeding range and 

 apparently its eggs were not actually found. It is well to note, 

 however, that Cook in his Birds of Michigan (1893, p. 58) says: 

 "Prof. Ludwig Kumlien writes me that it breeds in the Northern 

 Peninsula. Davie, page iii, states that this species breeds on the 

 border of Lake Superior and north." 



Genus MICROPALAMA Baird. 



III. Micropalama himantopus (Bonap.). 

 Stilt Sandpiper. 



Distr.: Northeastern North America, breeding from the southern 

 shores of Hudson Bay to the Mackenzie region and northward; south 

 in winter to the West Indies, Central and South America. 



Adult in summer: Legs, dull olive green; entire plumage, dull 

 white and dark brown, being banded on the under parts with dark 

 brown, and the upper parts, streaked with dark brown; a stripe of 

 chestnut brown above and below the eye, the former extending back- 

 wards and joining at the occiput; secondaries, edged with tawny 

 brown. 



Adult in winter: Upper plumage, gray; feathers on the back, 

 edged with white; breast, pale buff, slightly mottled, shading into 

 dull white on the upper throat ; belly, dull white ; bill, black. 



Length, 8.20; wing, 5; tarsus, 1.6^; bill, 1.60. 



The Stilt Sandpiper can not be considered a common species either 

 in Illinois or Wisconsin, but it occurs regularly in both states during 

 the migrations and is apparently more numerous in late summer than 

 in spring. 



Nelson (Birds N. E. Illinois, 1876, p. 126) considers it "of rare 

 occurrence" and says: "On the 8th of August, 1873, I saw a single 

 specimen on the Lake shore near Chicago, and the loth of Sep- 

 tember, the same year, R. P. Clark obtained a specimen at the 

 same place." 



Mr. Frank M. Woodruff writes: "I have observed a large number 



