310 SOLITARY SANDPIPER, OR TATLER. 



without much care, and contained three eggs. Both birds were greatly dis- 

 concerted, ran round me, and frequently alighted on the twigs and branches 

 with all the nimbleness of land birds, constantly throwing their heads for- 

 ward and vibrating their body and tail in the manner of the Louisiana Water 

 Thrush. The eggs measured one inch one eighth and a half in length, seven 

 and a half eighths in breadth; the colour was greenish-yellow, with spots and 

 patches of umber, more abundant around the crown, where the larger marks 

 formed a conspicuous circle. I carried one of the eggs home, and, on re- 

 turning a few days after to the spot, found one of the birds sitting, which 

 proved to me that the great anxiety shewn at my first visit was chiefly 

 because the female was about to lay her last egg. The male was absent, nor 

 did it shew itself during my stay. About a fortnight after I found the wings 

 of one of the birds near the place; the eggs also were gone; and I concluded 

 that some quadruped, probably a racoon, had committed the havoc. No bird 

 of this species was in the neighbourhood. 



In the Fauna Boreali-Americana, Dr. Richardson says that in high 

 northern latitudes these birds deposit their eggs on the bare sand, which is 

 another proof in addition to the many already given, that great differences 

 as to the mode of nestling may exist in the same species in different parts of 

 the country. Indeed, almost all the habits of this curious bird differ accord- 

 ing to the locality. In the Southern States, they are particularly fond of 

 low flat lands among deep woods and cane brakes, and rarely approach ponds 

 of any great extent, but prefer those which are small and most secluded. In 

 the Middle Districts I have found them along the Lehigh, and in watery 

 places both on low and on elevated ground. In the State of Maine they fre- 

 quented similar localities. In the prairies of Indiana I have seen them in 

 early spring, during rainy weather, wading and running through the water, 

 on the very foot-path before me, for eight or ten yards at a time. When 

 flushed, they would fly in a semicircle close over the ground, and re-alight 

 at the distance of a hundred yards or so on the same path. Not one of the 

 species was observed in Labrador or Newfoundland by my party; and my 

 friend Thomas MacCulloch informs me that only a few single birds are 

 seen near Pictou, and that in autumn, when they keep in marshy grounds in 

 the neighbourhood of the sea. 



The flight of the Solitary Sandpiper is swift and protracted. It moves in 

 a zigzag manner, and at times makes its way through the woods with sur- 

 prising ease, seldom leaving the starting place without uttering a clear and 

 pleasant tweet. In re-alighting it pitches downwards like the Common 

 Snipe. On the ground they are very active, and at times so indifferent to 

 the approach of man, that they will merely fly across or around a small pond 

 for a considerable time, and, if shot at and not touched, they will be sure to 



