304 
SPOTTED SANDPIPER, OR TATLER. 
29th of July, the young were fully fledged, and scampering over the rocks 
about us, amid the putrid and drying cod-fish. In that country it breeds 
later by three months than in Texas ; for on the head waters of Buffalo 
Bayou, about sixty miles from the margin of the Mexican Gulf, I saw broods 
already well grown on the 5th of May, 1837. On the same day of the 
same month in 1832, a similar occurrence happened on an island near Indian 
Key, on the south-east coast of Florida. In Newfoundland, on the other 
hand, the young were just fully fledged on the 11th of August, 1833. It 
appears strange that none were observed by Dr. Richardson on the shores 
of Hudson’s Bay, or in the interior of that country. They are quite abun- 
dant along the margins of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their tributaries, 
where they remain until driven off by the cold, and return about the begin- 
ning of April, at which period the Purple Martin also makes its appearance. 
In our Middle Districts, they arrive a fortnight later. On the Island of 
Jestico, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, about twenty pairs had nests and eggs 
on the 11th of June ; and the air was filled with the pleasing sound of their 
voices while we remained there. The nests were placed among the tall 
slender grass that covered the southern part of the island. They were more 
bulky and more neatly constructed than any that I have examined southward 
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and yet they were not to be compared with 
those found in Labrador, where, in every instance, they were concealed under; 
ledges of rocks extending for several feet over them, so that I probably 
should not have observed them, had not the birds flown off as I was passing. 
These nests were made of dry moss, raised to the height of from six to nine 
inches, and well finished within with slender grasses and feathers of thS 
Eider Duck. As usual, however, the eggs were always four, when the bird 
was sitting. They measure an inch and a quarter in length, by an inch at 
their thickest part, so that they have a shortish and bulky appearance, though 
they run almost to a point. They are smooth, and handsomely marked with 
blotches of deep brown and others of a lighter tint, on a greyish-yellow 
ground, the spots being larger and closer towards the rounded end. Both 
sexes incubate, and remain with their brood until the time of their departure. 
My learned friend Thomas Nuttall has described the manners of this 
species as observed in the neighbourhood of Boston, with so much truth and 
accuracy, that I cannot do better than present you with his account of it, the 
more especially, that in so doing, I have an opportunity of expressing the 
high opinion I entertain of his talents and varied accomplishments. “ The 
Peet Weet is one of the most familiar and common of all the New England 
marsh-birds, arriving along our river shores and low meadows about the 
beginning of May, from their mild or tropical winter quarters in Mexico. 
As soon as it arrives on the coast, small roving flocks are seen, at various 
