WATER BIRDS. 195 
Often when standing quietly otherwise it will jerk its head and body stiffly 
upward and back again, precisely as if moved by a hiccough. 
_It reaches southern Michigan the last week in April or the first in May, 
disappears by the first of June, returns from the north during the latter 
half of July and soon moves southward, although stragglers linger into 
or even through September. During the fall of 1906 this species was com- 
mon at Lansing all through September, and 6 or 8 were seen October 3. 
In the northern half of the state a few remain all summer, and it is very 
likely that an occasional pair may nest even in the southern counties. 
Singularly enough its nesting habits remain totally unknown, and al- 
though several collectors claim to have taken the eggs, there is no unques- 
tionable specimen in any museum or private collection so far as we know. 
An egg is said to have been taken from a nest on the ground, at Lake 
Bomaseen, Vt., by Jenness Richardson, May 28, 1878 (Bull. Nutt. Club, 
III, 1878, 197); Dr. C. K. Clarke claims to have found a nest and eggs on 
Simcoe Island, Lake Ontario, June 10, 1898 (Auk, XV, 328, 329); and more 
recently Walter Raine records the taking of three sets of eggs in northern 
Alberta, one set in the summer of 1903, the other two in 1904, by Evan 
Thomson, one of his collectors (Oologist, XXI, 1904, pp. 165-167). The 
eggs from Alberta were taken from old nests of the Cedar Waxwing and the 
Robin, placed in trees several feet above the ground; the Vermont and 
Simcoe Island eggs were from nests on the ground. For one reason or 
another no one of these records is entirely satisfactory and it remains for 
some reliable ornithologist to clear up the mystery surrounding the nesting 
of this species. There is a growing belief that it always nests in trees, 
using the deserted nest of some other bird, a habit unknown in any American 
Sandpiper, but said to be the rule with the European Green Sandpiper, H. 
ochropus, which very closely resembles our bird. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Bill slender, straight, black, longer than the head; legs and feet greenish black. Adult 
in summer: Olive-brown above, with a greenish cast, dotted or speckled with white; 
lower throat, chest, and sides of breast streaked with dusky; rest of under parts pure white; 
axillars barred with black and white; middle tail-feathers like the back, but spotted with 
white along the margins; other tail-feathers with about five narrow bars of black, the 
interspaces and tips white; primaries black with a purplish gloss, none of the shafts white 
on the upper side. Adult in winter: Similar, but with fewer white markings above, and 
the dusky streaks of throat and chest less distinct; a dark loral stripe, bordered above by 
a short white stripe. Young: Grayer about the head and neck, the top of head, back, 
and scapulars, thickly marked with dots of rusty or buff. Length 7.50 to 8.60 inches; 
wing 5 to 5.40; culmen 1.15 to 1.30; tarsus 1.25 to 1.90. 
108. Bartramian Sandpiper. Bartramia Jongicauda (Bechst.). (261) 
Synonyms: Bartram’s Tattler, Upland Plover, Field Plover, Prairie Pigeon, Prairie 
Plover.—Tringa longicauda, Bechst., 1812—Tringa Bartramia, Wils., Aud., Nutt.— 
Totanus Bartramius, Temm.—Actiturus Bartramius, Bonap. 
Plate X. 
The bill is too short for the ideal sandpiper and too long and slender 
for a plover. The lengthened tail, and the outer primary sharply barred 
with black and white are good recognition marks. 
Distribution.—North America, mainly east of the Rocky Mountains, 
