88 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



124 [261] Bartratnia longicauda (Bechst.). 



Upland Plover; "Pasture Plover." 



Very rare spring, uncommon autumn transient visitor (summer). April 3 

 to May 7 (June 24, 25, July 2, 3, 9) ; July 16 to October 26. 



I have several more spring records for this bird. One was seen by me in a 

 field at Ipswich on April 29, 1906; Mr. A. P. Stubbs saw two near Lynn on June 

 25, 1916; three were seen at Newburyport on June 24, 1916, by Mr. S. W. Bailey.^ 

 The June and early July records suggest breeding birds. I saw one of the birds 

 found by Mr. Stubbs near Lynn on July 3, 19 13, and two had been seen there by 

 Mr. Stubbs in July, 1912. This splendid bird is certainly less common than it 

 was fifteen or twenty years ago. 



When an Upland Plover alights, it may hold its wings stretched vertically up 

 over the back for a second, motionless, before slowly folding them. When stand- 

 ing still, it often nods its head nervously by drawing it first backward ; it may or 

 may not jerk its tail at the same time. In walking, its head and neck are thrust 

 out and back in a dove-hke manner, and the tail is held parallel with the ground. 

 When flushed both sexes emit the mournful, tremulous alarm or call-note 

 described in the original Memoir, often several times in rapid succession. 



At No Man's Land, off Martha's Vineyard, on June 15, 1913, 1 had an oppor- 

 tunity to study four or five pairs that were probably nesting on the island. Several 

 of these birds were flying in irregular circles, sometimes at a considerable height, 

 alternately soaring or on tremulous wings. From time to time they gave forth a 

 >ierd song, wild and sad, suggestive of rushing winds in desolate regions. This 

 aeolian wailing melody was undoubtedly the courtship song, and although usually 

 given from the air, it was at times emitted from the ground. Very inadequately 

 I have endeavored to express this song by the syllables oh-whee-oup, whee you. 



125 [262] Tryngites subruficollis (Vieill.). 

 Buff-breasted Sandpiper; "Hill Grass-bird." 

 Rare transient visitor. July 28 to September 14. 

 The September 14 record was made by Dr. Walter Faxon at Ipswich in 1916. 



1 Bailey, S. W. Auk, vol. 34, p. 207, 1917. 



