304 SPOTTED SANDPIPER, OR TATLER. 



29th of July, the young were fully fledged, and scampering over the rocks 

 about us, amid the putrid and drying cod-fish. In that country it breeds 

 later by three months than in Texas; for on the head waters of Buffalo 

 Bayou, about sixty miles from the margin of the Mexican Gulf, I saw broods 

 already well grown on the 5th of May, 1S37. On the same day of the 

 same month in 1832, a similar occurrence happened on an island near Indian 

 Key, on the south-east coast of Florida. In Newfoundland, on the other 

 hand, the young were just fully fledged on the 11th of August, 1833. It 

 appears strange that none were observed by Dr. Richardson on the shores 

 of Hudson's Bay, or in the interior of that country. They are quite abun- 

 dant along the margins of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their tributaries, 

 where they remain until driven off by the cold, and return about the begin- 

 ning of April, at which period the Purple Martin also makes its appearance. 

 In our Middle Districts, they arrive a fortnight later. On the Island of 

 Jestico, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, about twenty pairs had nests and eggs 

 on the 11th of June; and the air was filled with the pleasing sound of their 

 voices while we remained there. The nests were placed among the tall 

 slender grass that covered the southern part of the island. They were more 

 bulky and more neatly constructed than any that I have examined southward 

 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and yet they were not to be compared with 

 those found in Labrador, where, in every instance, they were concealed under 

 ledges of rocks extending for several feet over them, so that I probably 

 should not have observed them, had not the birds flown off as I was passing. 

 These nests were made of dry moss, raised to the height of from six to nine 

 inches, and well finished within with slender grasses and feathers of the 

 Eider Duck. As usual, however, the eggs were always four, when the bird 

 was sitting. They measure an inch and a quarter in length, by an inch at 

 their thickest part, so that they have a shortish and bulky appearance, though 

 they run almost to a point. They are smooth, and handsomely marked with 

 blotches of deep brown and others of a lighter tint, on a greyish-yellow 

 ground, the spots being larger and closer towards the rounded end. Both 

 sexes incubate, and remain with their brood until the time of their departure. 

 My learned friend Thomas Nuttall has described the manners of this 

 species as observed in the neighbourhood of Boston, with so much truth and 

 accuracy, that I cannot do better than present you with his account of it, the 

 more especially, that in so doing, I have an opportunity of expressing the 

 high opinion I entertain of his talents and varied accomplishments. "The 

 Peet Weet is one of the most familiar and common of all the New England 

 marsh-birds, arriving along our river shores and low meadows about the 

 beginning of May, from their mild or tropical winter quarters in Mexico. 

 As soon as it arrives on the coast, small roving flocks are seen, at various 



