THE SHoreE Birps. 209 
wholly disappear. I have known two, three, and 
four minutes to elapse, and then, like lightning 
from a clear sky, the bird would suddenly reappear, 
touching the ground lightly with its dainty feet and 
raising its wings straight up above its back, as if to 
celebrate the victory of having escaped and returned 
in safety. Again and again I have flushed the poor 
solitary, and it invariably flew two or three miles, I 
judge, before returning. 
There has been from time to time some discussion 
of the habits of this bird so far as its breeding is 
concerned. Speaking for the Delaware River Valley, 
I can say that while the bird is migratory and might 
by casual observers be considered as generally so, a 
few do remain within the limits of Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey during the summer. I have seen them 
during the months of June and July in both the 
States mentioned, and I found a pair once in great 
distress because an enormous bull-frog had swallowed 
their newly-born young. It is foolish for theoretical 
ornithologists to dispute such statements. There is 
no possibility of any one mistaking this bird for any 
other, and as I have known the two species well and 
for many years, it borders on the ridiculous to sug- 
gest that the two—the spotted and the solitary—were 
confounded. 
A beautiful upland and dry-ground sand-piper is 
well known to many as the Grass Plover,—an unfor- 
tunate name, as it is not a true plover,—and it is also 
called Bartram’s Tattler. “It inhabits at different 
seasons nearly all of North America, and in winter 
pushes its migration even to Central and South 
o 18* 
