SOLITARY SANDPIPER. 
159 
was accompanied by a mate) was seen day after day collect- 
ing insects, and contentedly resting in the inteiwal on the 
border of the pond. The water having been recently let olf, 
the lily leaves and insects were covered with mud ; as soon 
then as our little familiar and cleanly visitor had swallowed a 
few of these insects, he washed them down with a drink of the 
water, and at the same time took the precaution to cleanse his 
bill and throat. Indeed, it is remarkable that however dirty 
the employment of these shore-birds may be, so neat are they 
in all their habits that not a stain or a soil is allowed for a 
moment to remain upon their limbs or plumage. This species 
is usually silent except when suddenly flushed, at which times 
it utters a sharp whistle like most of the other kinds to which 
it is related. 
This bird is said to swim and dive with great facility when 
disabled from flying, and proceed under water like the Divers. 
The Solitary Sandpiper is a rather common bird, breeding from 
about latitude 45° to the lower fur countries. A few pairs remain 
in New England during the summer months. 
Until quite recently the nest and eggs of this bird were unknown, 
and even now so few have been discovered, and these few so 
imperfectly identified, that fresh discoveries will be welcomed. 
My friend Banks thinks he found an egg on the shore of Lily 
Lake, near St. John, in t88o, and very probably he is correct; 
but he could not prove it absolutely, for he could not get sight of 
the parent on the nest or moving away from it. The nest was 
in an open meadow, and within sight for a considerable distance; 
but though the egg was always warm when visited, the parent man- 
aged to elude discovery. The only bird of the family seen in that 
vicinity during the time the nest was under observation being of 
the present species, and the nest and egg being somewhat different 
from those other shore-birds known to breed there, led Banks to 
suppose that the Solitary must be the parent. 
Note. — One example each of the Green Shank {Totanus 
nebularius) and the Green Sandpiper (71 ochropus), both birds 
of the Old World, have been taken on the Atlantic coast, the first- 
named in Florida, the other in Nova Scotia. 
