BARTRAHIAN SANDPIPER. 
249 
flocks, but this is not correct, for in the neighborhood of New Orleans, 
where it is called the “ Papabote,” it usually arrives in great bands in spring, 
and is met with on the open plains and large grassy savannahs, where it 
generally remains about two weeks, though sometimes individuals may be 
seen as late as the 15th of May. I have observed the same circumstance on 
our western prairies, but have thought that they were afterwards obliged to 
separate into small flocks or even into pairs, as soon as they are ready to seek 
proper places for breeding in, for I seldom found more than two pairs 
with nests or young in the same field or piece of ground. On their first 
arrival, they are generally thin, but on their return southward, in the begin- 
ning of August, when they tarry in Louisiana until the first of October, they 
are fat and juicy. I have observed, that in spring, when they are poor, they 
are usually much less shy than in autumn, when they are exceedingly wary 
and difficult of approach ; but this general observation is not without excep- 
tions, and the difference, I think, depends on the nature of the localities in 
which they happen to be found at either period. When on newly ploughed 
fields, which they are fond of frequenting, they see a person at a greater 
distance than when they are searching for food among the slender grasses 
of the plains. I have also thought that the size of the flocks may depend 
upon similar contingencies, for this bird is by no means fond of the society 
of man. 
Like the Spotted Sandpiper, Totanus macularius, they not unfrequently 
alight on fences, trees, and out-houses ; but whether in such situations or on 
the ground, they seldom settle without raising both wings upright to their 
full extent, and uttering their loud and prolonged, but pleasing notes. They 
run with great activity, stop suddenly, and vibrate their body once or twice. 
When earnestly followed by the sportsman, they lower their heads in the 
manner of Wilson’s Plover, and the species called the Piping, and run off 
rapidly, or squat, according to the urgency of the occasion. At other times 
they partially extend their wings, run a few steps as if about to fly, and then 
cunningly move off sideways, and conceal themselves among the grass, or 
behind a clod. You are not unfrequently rendered aware of your being 
within sight of them, by unexpectedly hearing their plaintive and mellow 
notes, a circumstance, however, which I always concluded to be indicative 
of the wariness of their disposition, for although you have just heard those 
well-known cries, yet, on searching for the bird, you nowhere see it, for the 
cunning creature has slipped away and hid itself. When wounded in the 
wing, they run to a great distance, and are rarely found. 
Like all experienced travellers, they appear to accommodate themselves 
to circumstances as regards their food, for in Louisiana they feed on can- 
tharides and other coleopterous insects ; in Massachusetts on grasshoppers, 
