248 BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER. 



longest, all free, broadly marginate, with numerous scutella. Claws small, 

 slightly arched, compressed, rather obtuse. Plumage soft, blended, on the 

 back distinct. Wings very long, pointed; primaries tapering, obtuse, the 

 first longest; one of the inner secondaries very long. Tail rather short, 

 nearly even, of twelve feathers. 



BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER. 



-v Tkinga Bartramia, Wils. 

 PLATE CCCXXVIL— Male and Female. 



The Bartramian Sandpiper is the most truly terrestrial of its tribe with 

 which I am acquainted. It is even more inclined, at all seasons, to keep 

 away from the water than the Kildeer Plover, which may often be seen 

 wading in shallow pools, or searching along the sandy or muddy margins of 

 the shores of the sea, or of fresh-water lakes and streams. Although not 

 unfrequently met with in the vicinity of such places, it never ventures to 

 wade into them; and yet the form and length of its legs and feet would 

 naturally induce a person not acquainted with its habits to consider it as a 

 w T ading bird. 



The dry upland plains of those sections of Louisiana called Opellousas 

 and Attacapas, are amply peopled with this species in early spring, as well 

 as in autumn. They arrive there from the vast prairies of Texas and 

 Mexico, where they spend the winter, in the beginning of March, or about 

 the period of the first appearance of the Martins, Hirundo purpurea, and 

 return about the first of August. They are equally abundant on all the 

 western prairies on either side of the Missouri, where, however, they arrive 

 about a month later than in Louisiana, whence they disperse over the United 

 States, reaching the middle districts early in May, and the State of Maine 

 by the middle of that month, or about the same period at which they are 

 seen in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Some proceed as far north as the 

 plains adjoining the Saskatchewan river, where Dr. Richardson met with 

 this species in the month of May. 



It has been supposed that the Bartramian Sandpiper never forms large 



