THE SPOTTED SANDPirEK. 435 



they were "just fully fledged" by the eleventh of August. 

 The parent leaves the nest w^ith much reluctance, and man- 

 ifests the greatest distress as she hobbles and flutters along, 

 or even prostrates herself on the ground, at a short distance, 

 uttering the most plaintive notes. The 4 eggs, 1.35 X. 92, 

 are a grayish cream, specked, spotted and heavily blotched 

 With dark brown and also a lighter tint. Like the eggs of 

 the Waders in general, they are quite pointed, and large for 

 the size of the bird. When in the down, the young are 

 gray, having a black stripe over the back, and one behind 

 each eye. 



This bird spends the winter in the Southern States, but 

 extends also through Mexico and Central America to South 

 America. It is 7.00-8.00 long ; bill about 1.00, and grooved 

 nearly to the tip ; head and neck slender; color above, a 

 bronze-olive, much like that of a Cuckoo, with fine central 

 lines or wavy cross-bars of black; eye-lid, line back from the 

 eye and under parts, pure white in the mature birds, and 

 finely spotted with black, the young lacking the black spots. 



The Solitary Sandpiper {^Totanus solitarius),'S,oxa.&^.(i(i\<:>n^ 

 and 17.00 ia extent, is "dark lustrous olive-brown, streaked 

 on the head and neck, elsewhere finely speckled with whitish; 

 below, white, jugulum and sides of neck with brownish 

 suffusion, and dusky streaks; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 like the back; tail, axillars and lining of wings, beautifully 

 barred with black and white; quills entirely blackish; bill 

 and feet blackish ; young, duller above, less speckled, jugu- 

 lum merely suffused with grayish-brown." This "shy, quiet 

 inhabitant of wet woods, moist meadows, and secluded 

 pools, rather than of the marshes," is not gregarious, and 

 is often found singly. Its nidification is but imperfectly 

 known. An egg from Vermont, well identified, was de- 

 scribed by the late Dr. Brewer. Mr. Jas. W. Banks, of St. 



