XLI 



THE BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER— UPLAND PLOVER 



THE Bartramian sandpiper of the ornithologists is 

 the upland or field plover of the sportsmen. 

 Wilson named it after his friend William Bartram, 

 near whose botanic gardens on the banks of the river 

 Schuylkill he first found* it. Seton says, " ever since 

 Wilson's time this name has been continually thrust 

 into the face of the public, only to be as continually re- 

 jected. Upland plover it continues to be in the East, 

 and quaily on the Assiniboine." In the West, the bird 

 is the prairie pigeon, and at New Orleans it is the pap- 

 abote. 



It was formerly abundant in New England, and on 

 Long Island and throughout the country west to the 

 Rocky Mountains, frequenting only the high, grassy, 

 open fields. It does not frequent the ponds or streams 

 or ocean shores, and in its habits is more of a plover 

 than a sandpiper. Its food is chiefly insects. It never 

 has the fishy taste so often observed in other sand- 

 pipers and plovers, and its flesh is always delicious. 

 Audubon, Wilson, Coues, Elliot, Forester and the rest 

 of the ornithologists and sportsmen are united in prais- 

 ing this bird as an article of food. 



Colonel Dodge regards it as one of the best of our 

 table birds, using it as a standard of excellence to which 



283 



