9S 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS 
quenting, they see a person at a greater distance than when they 
are searching for food among the slender grasses of the plains. 
I have also thought that the size of the flocks may depend upon 
similar contingencies ; for this bird is by no means fond of the 
society of man. 
u Like the Spotted Sandpiper —Totanus Macularius —they not 
unfrequently alight on fences, trees and out-houses; but, whe¬ 
ther in such situations or on the ground, they seldom settle 
without raising both wings upright to their full extent, and ut¬ 
tering their loud, prolonged and pleasing notes They run with 
great activity, stop suddenly, and vibrate their body once or 
twice. 
u When earnestly followed by the sportsman, they lower their 
neads in the manner of Wilson’s Plover, and the species called 
the Piping, and run off rapidly, or squat, according to the urg¬ 
ency of the occasion. At other times, they partially extend 
their wings, run a few steps as if about to fly, and then cun¬ 
ningly move off sideways, and conceal themselves among the 
grass, or behind a clod. You are unfrequently rendered aware 
of your being near them by unexpectedly hearing their plain¬ 
tive and mellow notes, a circumstance, however, which I 
always concluded to be indicative of the wariness of their dis¬ 
position ; for, although you have just heard those well-known 
cries, yet, on searching for thedrird itself, you nowhere see it— 
for the cunning creature has slipped away and hid itself. 
When wounded in the wing, they run to a great distance, and 
are rarely found. 
“ Like all experienced travellers, they appear to accommo¬ 
date themselves to circumstances, as regards their food—for in 
Louisiana they feed on cantharides and other coleopterous insects; 
n Massachusetts on grasshoppers, on which my friend Nut- 
tall says they soon grow fat; in the Carolinas on crickets 
and other insects, as well as the seeds of the crab-grass— Digi- 
taria Sanguinaria —and in the Barrens of Kentucky they often 
pick the strawberries. Those which feed much on cantharides 
require tc be very carefully cleaned, otherwise persons eating 
