SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 
89 
dark olive, streaked with white ; hack, scapulars, and 
rump, dark brown olive, each feather marked along 1 
the edges with small round spots of white ; wings, 
plain, and of a darker tint ; under tail-covert, spotted 
with black; tail, slightly rounded, the five exterior 
feathers on each side, white, broadly barred with black ; 
the two middle ones, as well as their coverts, plain 
olive ; legs, long, slender, and of a dusky green. Male 
and female alike in colour. 
231. TOTANUS MACULARIUS, TEMMINCK. 
THING A MACULAHIAf WILSON. SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 
WILSON, PLATE LIX. FIG. I. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This very common species arrives in Pennsylvania 
about the 20th of April, making its first appearance 
along the shores of our large rivers, and, as the season 
advances, tracing the courses of our creeks and streams 
towards the interior. Along the rivers Schuylkill and 
Delaware, and their tributary waters, they are in great 
abundance during the summer. This species is as 
remarkable for perpetually wagging the tail, as some 
others are for nodding the head ; for, whether running 
on the ground, or on the fences, along the rails, or in 
the water, this motion seems continual ; even the 
young, as soon as they are freed from the shell, run 
about constantly wagging the tail. About the middle 
of May, they resort to the adjoining corn fields to breed, 
where I have frequently found and examined their 
nests. One of these now before me, and which was 
built at the root of a hill of Indian corn, on high ground, 
is composed wholly of short pieces of dry straw. The 
eggs are four, of a pale clay or cream colour, marked 
with large irregular spots of black, and more thinly 
with others of a paler tint. They are large, in proportion 
to the size of the bird, measuring an inch and a quarter 
in length, very thick at the great end, and tapering 
suddenly to the other. The young run about with 
wonderful speed, as soon as they leave the shell, and 
