BAR-TAILED SANDPIPER.[107]
Totanus chloropygius.
| Tringa solitaria, | Wils. |
| Totanus chloropygius, | Vieill. |
[107] Length 8 inches, expanse 15, flexure 5, tail 2²⁄₁₀, rictus 1¼, tarsus 1¹⁄₁₀, middle toe 1¹⁄₁₀.
About the ponds of pastures, and fresh-water morasses, this Sandpiper or Gambet is frequently seen; and that not quite so solitarily as Wilson found it. The gizzard of one that I dissected was filled with a blackish, unctuous, filamentous substance, among which I detected some fragments of minute water-insects, a small larva of a libellula, &c.
One day, as I was seeking Herons in Paradise marshes, I aimed at a bird twice in succession, but each time the cap detonated without igniting the charge: the slight sound alarmed two or three Bar-tails, that were close by, and caused them to rise a few yards into the air, where they remained several seconds, hovering, the wings held perpendicularly, and nearly meeting over the back, after which they settled down again. One, whose wing had been broken, I allowed to run about my room, having first cut off the dangling joint. It had much of the manners of the Kildeer (see p. 331), but frequently held up the wings perpendicularly, when running.
That the power of swimming does not depend on webbed feet, is now pretty well known; some instances I have mentioned already. A Bar-tail, shot at Mount Edgecumbe pond, plunged into the water, and swam vigorously, striking out with both feet. On another occasion a Sandpiper, I do not know of what species, being wounded, plunged into a river, and swam some distance; but Sam pursuing and approaching it, it dived, and swam swiftly under water, like a Grebe, coming up at the distance of several yards, then instantly diving again, till at last it effected its escape among the reeds and bushes at the margin.
YELLOW-SHANKS GAMBET.[108]
Totanus flavipes.