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BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER. 
HABITS. 
The occurrence of the Ruff which is a well-known European bird, in North America, 
is quite rare but it has now been taken here too often to be regarded as a mere straggler, 
and the same remarks may refer to this species that I have applied to the Curlew Sand¬ 
piper, regarding its breeding on our side of the Atlantic but in high latitudes. Nuttall, 
in 1834, was the first to record it from North America. Then Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence, 
writing in Birds of North America, in 1858, gives it as accidental on Long Island, and 
again records it in his Birds of New York in 1866. Mr G. A. Boardman found one or two 
at Calais but on the New Brunswick side of the St. Croix. Mr. William Brewster obtained 
a female from the Newburyport marshes, on the twentieth of May, 1871. This is given, 
upon Prof. Baird’s authority, as being the sixth specimen ever obtained in North America. 
Mr. Brewster’s bird had the ovaries quite well developed and would have laid within two 
or three weeks. On the tenth of November, 1872, Dr. Theo. Jasper took one thirty miles 
east of Columbus, Ohio, which is, I think, the only specimen ever taken so far in the in¬ 
terior. Mr. Brewster, on the eighth of September, 1874, was fortunate enough to obtain 
another female at Upton, Maine. As I write, I have a fine specimen before me, obtained at 
Chatham, Massachusetts, about the fifteenth of September of the present year, 1880. This 
is a female of the year and Mr. Gordon Plummer has secured it for his fine collection of 
North American birds. At the suggestion of Mr. W. B. Dowse, Mr. Plummer has kindly 
forwarded the specimen to me for examination and identification, and I have based my 
above given description of the young, upon this specimen which I believe is the ninth re¬ 
corded as having been taken in North America, the third from New England, and the sec¬ 
ond from Massachusetts. It is worthy of note, that none of the specimens yet taken on the 
continent, have the peculiar, elongated feathers about the neck as seen in European male 
birds. 
GENUS VIII. ACTITURUS. THE HIGHLAND SANDPIPERS. 
Gen. Cn. Bill, about as long as head , a little curved, slender, and not expanded at tip. Gape, wide. Head, large and 
neck, small. 
The sternum is narrow, about as wide as height of keel which does not exceed the length of coracoids. Outer margin¬ 
al indentations, wide and three times as deep as inner. Legs, long and stout. Tail, long and rounded. The stomach is 
oval in form, quite muscular, and lined with a hard, finely rugose membrane. The proventriculus is large. The intestines 
are small but long, and the cceca rather short, with blind ends dilated. The sterno-treachealis is quite stout and there is 
a weak bronchialis, but no other laryngeal muscles. Tympaniform membrane, present but there is no os transversale. Sex¬ 
es similar. There is but one species within our limits. 
ACTITURUS BARTRAMIUS. 
Bartram’s Sandpiper. 
Actiturus Bartramius Linn., Bon., Saggio; 1831. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Cn. Form, rather slender. Size, large. Tongue, not long, thin, wide at base, then narrowing gradually to tip 
which is pointed. 
Color. Adult. Above, dark-brown, having a greenish gloss, with every feather, excepting primaries which are mot¬ 
tled and banded with whitish on the inner webs, edged with yellowish-ash and rufous. Rump, unmarked. Outer upper 
tail coverts, banded with yellowish-ash. Tail, ashy-buff, darker in the center, tipped with white and banded with dark- 
brown. Beneath, yellowish-white, banded on under wing coverts and axillaries, and spotted, in arrow-shaped marks, on 
neck, breast, and sides, with dark-brown. 
Young. Similar to the adult, but more yellowish above, the secondaries and inner primaries are tipped wit h white. 
Bill, iris, and feet, brown, in all stages. 
