310 
SOLITARY SANDPIPER, OR TATLER. 
without much care, and contained three eggs. Both birds were greatly dis- 
concerted, ran round me, and frequently alighted on the twigs and branches 
with all the nimbleness of land birds, constantly throwing their heads for- 
ward and vibrating their body and tail in the manner of the Louisiana 
Water Thrush. The eggs measured one inch one eighth and a half in length, 
seven and alialf eighths in breadth ; the colour was greenish-yellow, with 
spots and patches of umber, more abundant around the crown, where the 
larger marks formed a conspicuous circle. I carried one of the eggs home, 
and, on returning a few days after to the spot, found one of the birds sit- 
ting, which proved to me that the great anxiety shewn at my first visit was 
chiefly because the female was about to lay her last egg. The male was 
absent, nor did it shew itself during my stay. About a fortnight after I 
found the wings of one of the birds near the place ; the eggs also were gone ; 
and I concluded that some quadruped, probably a racoon, had committed 
the havoc. No bird of this species was in the neighbourhood. 
In the Fauna Boreali- Americana, Dr. Richardson says that in high 
northern latitudes these birds deposit their eggs on the bare sand, which is 
another proof in addition to the many already given, that great differences 
as to the mode of nestling may exist in the same species in different parts of 
the country. Indeed, almost all the habits of this curious bird differ accord- 
ing to the locality. In the Southern States, they are particularly fond of 
low flat lands among deep woods and cane brakes, and rarely approach 
ponds of any great extent, but prefer those which are small and most 
secluded. In the Middle Districts I have found them along the Lehigh, 
and in watery places both on low and on elevated ground. In the State of 
Maine they frequented similar localities. In the prairies of Indiana I have 
seen them in early spring, during rainy weather, wading and running 
through the water, on the very foot-path before me, for eight or ten yards at 
a time. When flushed, they would fly in a semicircle close over the ground, 
and re-alight at the distance of a hundred yards or so on the same path. 
Not one of the species was observed in Labrador or Newfoundland by my 
party ; and my friend Thomas MacCulloch informs me that only a few 
single birds are seen near Pictou, and that in autumn, when they keep in 
marshy grounds in the neighbourhood of the sea. 
The flight of the Solitary Sandpiper is swift and protracted. It moves in 
a zigzag manner, and at times makes its way through the woods with sur- 
prising ease, seldom leaving the starting-place without uttering a clear and 
pleasant tweet. In re-alighting it pitches downwards like the Common 
Snipe. On the ground they are very active, and at times so indifferent to 
the approach of man, that they will merely fly across or around a small pond 
for a considerable time, and, if shot at and not touched, they will be sure to 
