SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 355 



SPOTTED SANDPIPER. (Tringa macularia.) 



PLATE LIX .— Fig. 1. 



Arct. Zool. p. 473, No. 385.— La Grive d'Eau, Buff. viii. 140.— Edw. 277 '.— Peak's 

 Museum, No. 4056. 



TOTANTJS MACULABIUS.—TEmtmcK* 



Ord's reprint of Wils. part vii. p. 64. — Temm. Man.'d'Orn. ii. p. 656. — Bonap. 

 Synop. p. 325. — Flem. Br. Zool. p. 102.— Spotted Sandpiper, Mont. Orn. 

 Diet. ii. and Supp. Selby's Illust. of Br. Orn. w. b. pi. 17. 



This very common' species arrives in Pennsylvania about 

 the 20th of April, making its first appearance along the shores 

 of our large rivers, and, as the season advances, tracing the 

 courses of our creeks and streams towards the interior. Along 

 the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, and their tributary waters, 

 they are in great abundance during the summer. This species 

 is as remarkable for perpetually wagging the tail, as some others 

 are for nodding the head ; for, whether running on the ground 

 or on the fences, along the rails or in the water, this motion 

 seems continual ; even the young, as soon as they are freed from 

 the shell, run about constantly wagging the tail. About the 

 middle of May they resort to the adjoining cornfields to breed, 

 where I have frequently found and examined their nests. 

 One of these now before me, and which was built at the root 

 of a hill of Indian-corn, on high ground, is composed wholly 

 of short pieces of dry straw. The eggs are four, of a pale clay 

 or cream colour, marked with large irregular spots of black, 

 and more thinly with others of a paler tint. They are large 

 in proportion to the size of the bird, measuring an inch and a 



* This is one of the most beautiful and most delicately marked among 

 the smaller Totani. Closely allied to our common sand lark, T. hypo- 

 leucos, it is at once distinguished by the spotted marking on the under 

 parts, -which contrasts finely with their pure white. They frequent the 

 banks of rivers more than the larger species, and have all a peculiar 

 motion of the body and tail while running. The spotted sandpiper is 

 common to both continents, and has been once or twice killed in Great 

 Britain. — Ed. 



