BIRDS OP DURHAM AND VICIi^^ITY. 
37 
them abundantly on the hills. He calls them " Plovers.'' They 
begin to leave the hills in August, and the flight continues till the 
first of October. The anomalous relation of structure to habit, realized 
in this bird, is not easy to account for. A water bird that avoids the 
water is a curiosity. 
Tryngites subruficollis. Buff-breasted Sandpiper. 262. 
This Sandpiper is one of the rarest that appear on our coast. I 
have found but one specimen of it in all my searching, and that one is 
in the possession of Mr. Joseph Turner of Portsmouth. 
Actitis macularia. Spotted Sandpiper. 263. 
The Spotted Sandpiper is the only one of its tribe to make its home 
with us during the summer. It is a bird of the shore rather than 
of the marsh, and the extensive flats exposed by the retreating tide 
offer it a capital feeding ground in this neighborhood. It is a very 
busy bird, energetic to a degree, yet not wildly so, for now and then 
it may be seen to stop and assume a preoccupied air as if deep in 
meditation, while its tail bobs on, seemingly by force of habit. Great 
Bay is the home of many Spotted Sandpipers. They are a common 
sight along its shores, and their cheerful peet, iveet, iveet, weet, uttered 
as they fly away, is hail and farewell to the disturber. The nest is 
made in a slight depression in the ground, usually at no great distance 
from the water. I was much amused one day while rambling along the 
shore near Adams's Point, to see two of these "pipers'' standing 
patiently on a rail fence waiting for ebb tide, when they might go 
back to their beloved mud again. It was during a season of high 
tides when the ordinary shore line was well under water, and the idle 
waiting of such ordinarily active birds seemed almost pathetic. 
Numenius long-irostris. Long-billed Curleav. 264. 
The Long-billed Curlew, or Sickle-bill, is the largest of its family. 
It is a coast bird seldom seen. I have found but two specimens, in 
my perigrinations among the ornithologists of this locality. One is 
owned by Mr. Turner of Portsmouth and the other by Mr. George 
Wentworth of Rollinsford. 
Numenius hudsonicus. Hudsonian Curlew. 265. 
This Curlew is usually found coastwise in August and September, 
but it belongs to the list of irregular visitants, and a whole season 
may pass when even vigilant gunners do not see a single specimen. 
The Curlews are distinguished from the sandpipers by their superior 
size and decurved bills. 
