This beautiful bird makes its appearance on our southern coasts in the beginning of April, as I had many opportunities of observing in the course of my journey along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, in the spring of 1837. Instead of being congregated in large flocks, as is the case during their southward migration in autumn, they are seen coming in small numbers, but at short intervals, so as almost to form a continuous line. They travel chiefly by night, and rest for a great part of the day along the margins of the sea, either reposing on the sands in the sunshine, or searching the beaches for food. After dusk their well-known cries give note of their passage, but by day they remain silent, even when forced to betake themselves to flight. On such occasions they generally wheel over the waters, and not unfrequently return to the spot which they had at first selected. I have traced this species along the whole of our eastern coast, and beyond it to the rugged shores of Labrador, where my party procured a few, on the moss-covered rocks, although we did not then find any nests, and where some young birds were obtained in the beginning of August. Individuals of this species spend the summer months in the mountainous parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, where they breed. I found their nests near the waters of the Delaware and the Perkioming Creek, when I resided in the first of these States, and in the same localities as those of _Totanus Bartramius_, as well as in ploughed fields. The nest is merely a slight hollow with a few blades of grass. The eggs are four, an inch and seven and a-half eighths in length, an inch and three-eighths in their greatest breadth; their ground-colour yellowish-white, tinged with olivaceous, and pretty generally covered with blotches and dots of light brown, and pale purple, the markings being more abundant toward the small end. Their form is similar to that of the egg of the Guillemot, that is, broadly rounded at the large end, then tapering, with the sides nearly straight, and the narrow end rounded. When sitting, these birds will remain until they are almost trodden upon. On being started, they fly off a few yards, alight running, and use all the artifices employed on such occasions to induce the intruder to set out in pursuit. The young leave the nest almost immediately after they are hatched, and should one approach them the parents become very clamorous, and fly around until they are assured of the safety of their brood, when they take a long flight, and disappear for a time. Unless during the breeding season, they are exceedingly shy; but their anxiety for their young renders them forgetful of the danger which they incur in approaching man. The young, when two or three weeks old, run with great celerity, and squat in perfect silence when apprehensive of danger. When they are able to fly, several families unite, and betake themselves to the sea-shore, where