BAR TRAM'S SANDPIPER. 3 5 g 



dropping their wings, as birds do who wish to decoy you from 

 their nest ; when they alight they remain fixed, stand very 

 erect, and have two or three sharp whistling notes as they 

 mount to fly. They are remarkably plump birds, weighing 

 upwards of three-quarters of a pound ; their flesh is superior, 

 in point of delicacy, tenderness, and flavour, to any other of 

 the tribe with which I am acquainted. 



This species is twelve inches long, and twenty-one in 

 extent ; the bill is an inch and a half long, slightly bent down- 

 wards, and wrinkled at the base, the upper mandihle black on 

 its ridge, the lower, as well as the edge of the upper, of a fine 

 yellow ; front, stripe over the eye, neck, and breast, pale 

 ferruginous, marked with small streaks of black, which, on the 

 lower part of the breast, assume the form of arrow-heads ; 

 crown, black, the plumage slightly skirted with whitish ; chin, 

 orbit of the eye, whole belly and vent, pure white ; hind head 

 and neck above, ferruginous, minutely streaked with black ; 

 back and scapulars, black, the former slightly skirted with 

 ferruginous, the latter with white ; tertials, black, bordered 

 with white ; primaries, plain black ; shaft of the exterior 

 quill, snowy, its inner vane elegantly pectinated with white ; 

 secondaries, pale brown, spotted on their outer vanes with 

 black, and tipt with white ; greater coverts, dusky, edged 

 with pale ferruginous, and spotted with black ; lesser coverts, 

 pale ferruginous, each feather broadly bordered with white, 

 within which is a concentric semicircle of black ; rump and 

 tail-coverts, deep brown black, slightly bordered with white, 

 tail, tapering, of a pale brown orange colour, beautifully 

 spotted with black, the middle feathers centred with dusky ; 

 legs, yellow, tinged with green ; the outer toe joined to the 

 middle by a membrane ; lining of the wings, elegantly barred 

 with black and white ; iris of the eye, dark, or blue black ; 

 eye, very large. The male and female are nearly alike. 



