EARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER. 249 



flocks, but this is not correct, for in the neighbourhood of New Orleans, 

 where it is called the "Papabote," it usually arrives in great bands in spring, 

 and is met with on the open plains and large grassy savannahs, where it 

 generally remains about two weeks, though sometimes individuals may be 

 seen as late as the 15th of May. I have observed the same circumstance on 

 our western prairies, but have thought that they were afterwards obliged to 

 separate into small flocks, or even into pairs, as soon as they are ready to seek 

 proper places for breeding in, for I have seldom found more than two pairs 

 with nests or young in the same field or piece of ground. On their first 

 arrival, they are generally thin, but on their return southward, in the begin- 

 ning of August, when they tarry in Louisiana until the first of October, they 

 are fat and juicy. I have observed, that in spring, when they are poor, they 

 are usually much less shy than in autumn, when they are exceedingly wary 

 and difficult of approach; but this general observation is not without excep- 

 tions, and the difference, I think, depends on the nature of the localities in 

 which they happen to be found at either period. When on newly ploughed 

 fields, which they are fond of frequenting, they see a person at a greater 

 distance than when they are searching for food among the slender grasses of 

 the plains. I have also thought that the size of the flocks may depend upon 

 similar contingencies, for this bird is by no means fond of the society of 

 man. 



Like the Spotted Sandpiper, Totanus macularius, they not unfrequently 

 alight on fences, trees, and out-houses; but whether in such situations or on 

 the ground, they seldom settle without raising both wings upright to their 

 full extent, and uttering their loud and prolonged, but pleasing notes. They 

 run Avith great activity, stop suddenly, and vibrate their body once or twice. 

 When earnestly followed by the sportsman, they lower their heads in the 

 manner of Wilson's Plover, and the species called the Piping, and run off 

 rapidly, or squat, according to the urgency of the occasion. At other times 

 they partially extend their wings, run a few steps as if about to fly, and then 

 cunningly move off sideways, and conceal themselves among the grass, or 

 behind a clod. You are not unfrequently rendered aware of your being 

 within sight of them, by unexpectedly hearing their plaintive and mellow 

 notes, a circumstance, however, which I always concluded to be indicative of 

 the wariness'of their disposition, for although you have just heard those well- 

 known cries, yet, on searching for the bird, you nowhere see it, for the 

 cunning creature has slipped away and hid itself. When wounded in the 

 wing, they run to a great distance, and are rarely found. 



Like all experienced travellers, they appear to accommodate themselves 

 to circumstances as regards their food, for in Louisiana they feed on can- 

 tharides and other coleopterous insects; in Massachusetts on grasshoppers, 



