UPLAND SHOOTING. 
97 
“ The dry, upland plains of those sections of Louisiana, call¬ 
ed Oppelousas and Attakapas, are amply peopled with this spe¬ 
cies early in spring, as well as in autumn. They arrive there 
from the vast prairies of Texas and Mexico, where they spend 
the winter, in the beginning of March or about the first appear¬ 
ance of the Martins —Hirundo Purpurea —and return about the 
first of August. They are equally abundant on all the Western 
Prairies on either side of the Missouri, where, however, they 
arrive about a month later than in Louisiana, whence they dis¬ 
perse over the United States, reaching the Middle Districts early 
in May, and the State of Maine by the middle of that month, or 
about the same period at which they are seen in Indiana, Ken¬ 
tucky and Ohio. Some proceed as far north as the plains ad¬ 
joining the Saskatchewan River, where Dr. Richardson met with 
this species in May. 
u It has been supposed that the Bartramian Sandpiper never 
forms large flocks ; but this is not correct—for in the neighbor¬ 
hood of New Orleans, where it is called the c Papabote,’ it 
usually arrives, in great bands, in spring, and is met with on the 
open plains and large grassy savannahs, where it generally re¬ 
mains about two weeks,—though sometimes individuals may be 
seen as late as the 15th of May. * I have observed the same cir¬ 
cumstance on our Western Prairies, but have thought that they 
were afterward 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 have 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 south¬ 
ward, in the beginning 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 diffi¬ 
cult of approach; but this general observation is not without 
exceptions, 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 fre 
