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the islands off the east coast of America. Messrs. A. & E. Newton (Ibis, 1859, p. 257) met 

 with it in July and August in the island of St. Croix, where it is, they say. pretty common, 

 arriving about the same time as the Yellowshanks. Leotaud (Ois. Trinid. p. 451) states that 

 it arrives in Trinidad in August and leaves in October ; Gosse records it from Jamaica, Sundevall 

 from Porto Rico, Gundlach from Cuba, where it is common during migration, and Messrs. Wedder- 

 burn and Hurdis from Bermuda, where it is common in August and September, and some were 

 seen in July and April; and Colonel Feilden (Ibis, 1889, p. 496) says that it arrives in Barbados 

 in July and remains till the end of November. 



I see that some authors remark that this is by no means a solitary bird, but, so far as my 

 own experience goes, I consider that Wilson's name is quite suitable, for I have never seen it in 

 flocks but always singly or in small parties of two or three. When I first met with it in the 

 woods of New Brunswick during the breeding-season, I was greatly struck by its similarity, in 

 habits, to our European Totanus glareola. Almost every small stream held a pair, which seemed 

 to reside there alone, for I do not remember to have found more than one pair frequenting the 

 same stream. Their flight is easy and swift, much resembling that of bur Wood-Sandpiper. 1 

 usually met with them on the banks of streams or lakes, or in the alder swamps, and never 

 observed them perch on a branch, though they would run over the roots which often form a 

 tangled lacework in the swamps ; but they seem to prefer to seek their food, which consists of 

 worms and small insects, in places on the edges of streams and pools where there is but little 

 vegetation. In Texas and Mexico, where I met with it in the autumn and in spring, I only saw 

 it singly or in twos or threes frequenting inland pools or the banks of rivers. As a rule I did 

 not find it shy, and, when undisturbed, by using care I have approached close to them when they 

 were busily engaged in seeking for food on the banks of the streams. They are, as a rule, very 

 silent, and I have only heard them utter a sharp whistle when they suddenly take to flight. 



Mr. Henshaw says that he frequently met with this Sandpiper in the west in mountainous 

 localities, on the borders of such small ponds as are wholly surrounded by dense forests growing 

 almost to the water's edge. He remarks that he found it " far from solitary, and rarely to be 

 seen alone, little companies of six or seven being quite usual, and not unfrequently more may be 

 seen together," which is, as above mentioned, contrary to my own experience. 



The breeding-range of the Solitary Sandpiper extends, according to Dr. Brewer, over the 

 region north of latitude 44°, but to what extent north is uncertain. According to Audubon it 

 nests in Louisiana, to Wilson in Pennsylvania, and Mr. Giraud says it is found on Long Island 

 from May to September ; but these statements require confirmation. Mr. Henshaw believes that 

 it breeds in parts of Utah, Colorado ; and Mr. Nelson, in his " Notes on the Birds of North-eastern 

 Illinois," states that he has several times taken young birds near a prairie slough, which were 

 just able to fly, and observed adult birds throughout the breeding-season. It certainly breeds 

 on the river St. Croix near Calais, Maine, where my friend Mr. George A. Boardman has met 

 with it regularly during the breeding-season. During the two seasons I collected in New 

 Brunswick, I saw several pairs near Musquash which were evidently breeding, but in spite of 

 every endeavour I could not succeed in finding the nest. They frequented dense alder swamps 

 on the borders of small streams, and I spent many days hunting through these swamps and 

 watching the birds but without success; and it must be a most difficult nest to find, as no 



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