Species III. TRINGA MACULABIA. 



SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 



[Plate LIX. Fig. 1.] 



Ard. Zool. p. 473, No. 385.— £a drive d'eau. Buff, tiii., 140.— Bdw. 277.* 



This very common species arrives in Pennsylvania about the twentieth 

 of April, making its first appearance along the shores of our large rivers, 

 and, as the season advances, tracing the courses of our creeks and 

 streams towards the interior. Along the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, 

 and their tributary waters, they are in great abundance during the sum- 

 mer. This species is as remarkable for perpetually wagging the tail, 

 as some others are for nodding the head ; for whether running on the 

 ground, or on the fences, along the rails, or in the water, this motion 

 seems continual ; even the young, as soon as they are freed from the 

 shell, run about constantly wagging the tail. About the middle of May 

 they resort to the adjoining corn fields to breed, where I have frequently 

 found and examined their nests. One of these, now before me, and 

 which was built at the root of a hill of Indian corn, on high ground, is 

 composed wholly of short pieces of dry straw. The eggs are four, of a 

 pale clay or cream color, marked with large irregular spots of black, 

 and more thinly with others of a paler tint. They are large in propor- 

 tion to the size of the bird, measuring an inch and a quarter in length, 

 very thick at the great end, and tapering suddenly to the other. The 

 young run about with wonderful speed as soon as they leave the shell, 

 and are then covered with down of a full drab color, marked with a 

 single streak of black down the middle of the back, and with another 

 behind each ear. They have a weak, plaintive note. On the approach 

 of any person, the parents exhibit symptoms of great distress, coun- 

 terfeiting lameness, and fluttering along the ground with seeming diffi- 

 culty. On the appearance of a dog, 'this agitation is greatly increased ; 

 and it is very interesting to observe with what dexterity the female will 

 lead him from her young, by throwing herself repeatedly before him, 

 fluttering off, and keeping just without his reach, on a contrary direction 

 from her helpless brood. My venerable friend, Mr. William Bartram, 



* Tringa macularia, Gmel.' Syst. i., p. 672, No. 7. — Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 734, No. 

 29. — Totanus macularius, Temm. Man. d' Orn. p. 656. 



« (342) 



