238 
PRJECOCIAL GrRALLATORES — LIMICOL^E. 
by any domestic cares or responsibilities, begin their southern flight some time before 
the others, who must wait for the maturity of their broods. Be these conjectures as 
they may, we find, all over the country, in the interior, on both coasts, even at places 
surprisingly far from any of their known breeding-places, that this bird is sure 
to reappear in small numbers in July — this early reappearance remaining as yet 
unexplained. 
Mr. E. Adams (“ Ibis,” 1878), in his Notes on Birds observed by him on the Sea- 
coast of Alaska, mentions meeting with this species at Norton Sound as early as the 
14th of April, while the snow still covered the greater part of the ground ; they were 
not, however, seen in great numbers until the middle of the following month. They 
confined themselves almost solely to the salt-marsh and the muddy banks of the 
river, where it was reached by the tide ; at such points they were always to be found, 
in flocks of from fifty to a hundred, accompanied by a few Dunlins and Brown Snipes. 
Mr. Adams often sat on a log while they were feeding all around within a foot of 
him ; but on his making the slightest movement, they were gone in an instant, with 
a whisk and a twitter. Their nests were placed on the higher ground surrounding 
the marsh ; the eggs are described as spotted with shades of olive-green, principally 
about the large end, and upon a pale brownish ground. 
It is cpiite probable that here and there, in favorable situations, pairs of these 
birds stop to breed in exceptionally southern latitudes. Mr. Nelson states that on 
the 5th of June, 1875, he found one of them building its nest near the Calumet 
River, in Northeastern Illinois ; and several of this species were observed by Mr. 
Rice near Waukegan on the 1st of July, they having, as he felt assured, nested in 
that vicinity. We are not aware, however, that the eggs or young of this bird have 
ever been actually taken within the limits of the United States. 
Mr. Dali obtained a specimen of this bird at Nulato, May 14, where it is not com- 
mon. It was more plentiful at the mouth of the Yukon, where its eggs were procured. 
He met with it also at Popoff Island, one of the Aleutians, June 20, 1872, where it 
was rather abundant. Mr. Bisclioff also obtained it at Sitka. 
It is given by Mr. R. Browne as one of the common birds of Vancouver Island. 
In California, according to Dr. Cooper, it is nearly resident, being absent from the 
coast only during a part of June and July ; it is frequently seen about inland ponds 
and marshes in the interior. It occurs in immense flocks, during the winter, on the 
shores of the Pacific in Southern California ; and on the same coast, much farther 
south, about the mouth of the Nagualate River, in Guatemala, Mr. Salvin found it 
occurring in considerable numbers in the month of March. 
Mr. J. A. Allen met with an occasional specimen of this species in the Valley of 
Salt Lake, in Utah, in the month of September ; and Mr. Ridgway also mentions 
finding it in Utah and Colorado during its migrations. 
On the Atlantic coast it is, if anything, even more common and abundant. Along 
the shores of Hudson’s Bay and Davis Straits, throughout Labrador, and on the 
islands farther south, it is a summer resident from June to the close of its short 
season. It is abundant, both in the spring and in the fall, along the entire Atlantic 
coast, a certain proportion remaining all the winter, or from October to April, on the 
coast of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and all the Gulf States, to Mexico, and 
thence to South America. It is also abundant in the West India Islands, occurring 
in Cuba, Jamaica, as well as in various other islands, from September to the follow- 
ing May. It visits the Bermudas in its southern migrations, arriving there from the 
last of July to the first part of November, and being present, at times, in flocks of 
many hundreds. 
