238 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



excellent eating. They preferred the sandy plains and the 

 dry tracks of the cotton teams. The call-note was low and 

 weak. The nest is placed in a slight depression in the 

 ground, lined with a little grass or a few leaves. 



In the 'Zoologist' for 1843 the late Mr. F. Bond, in a 

 note dated March 28th, stated that a specimen of the 

 Buff-breasted Sandpiper, obtained on the Sussex coast, had 

 lately come into his possession. Not more than fifteen 

 specimens have been recorded as having been met with in 

 the British Islands. 



BARTEAM'S SANDPIPER. 



Bartramia longicauda. 



This is another American species, whose visits to this country 

 are exceedingly rare. Of the habits of a specimen killed 

 at Low Steady in Northumberland, Mr. Bolam writes (see 

 Yarrrll's B. B. vol. iii. p. 44) : — "It was in the habit of 

 frequenting the long grass or ' bents ' with which the links 

 at Low Stead are covered, and Mr. Henry Grey . . . informs 

 me that it was not at all shy, and, when amongst the tall 

 grass, lay like a Snipe or Woodcock, allowing him to approach 

 within a few yards of it before rising. . . . and after flying for 

 a short distance. . • it would again drop into the long grass, 

 or, alighting on the bare sand, would run ofE to some con- 

 venient place of shelter. When surprised in the open ... it 

 ran very swiftly, frequently stopping behind a stone, or, after 

 it had got some distance from him, standing on a slight 

 hillock or other eminence, and watching his movements, its 

 tail, all the while, moving up and down with a peculiar sway- 

 ing motion not observable in any other of the Sandpipers. 



