Like the Spotted Sandpiper, _Totanus macularius_, they not unfrequently alight on fences, trees, and out-houses; but whether in such situations or on the ground, they seldom settle without raising both wings upright to their full extent, and uttering their loud and prolonged, but pleasing notes. They run with great activity, stop suddenly, and vibrate their body once or twice. When earnestly followed by the sportsman, they lower their heads in the manner of WILSON’s Plover, and the species called the Piping, and run off rapidly, or squat, according to the urgency of the occasion. At other times, they partially extend their wings, run a few steps as if about to fly, and then cunningly move off sideways, and conceal themselves among the grass, or behind a clod. You are not unfrequently rendered aware of your being within sight of them, by unexpectedly hearing their plaintive and mellow notes, a circumstance, however, which I always concluded to be indicative of the wariness of their disposition, for although you have just heard those well-known cries, yet, on searching for the bird, 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 accommodate themselves to circumstances as regards their food, for in Louisiana, they feed on cantharides and other coleopterous insects; in Massachusetts on grasshoppers, on which my friend NUTTALL says, they soon grow very fat; in the Carolinas on crickets and other insects, as well as the seeds of the crab-grass, _Digitaria sanguinaria_; and in the barrens of Kentucky they often pick the strawberries. Those which feed much on cantharides, require to be very carefully cleaned, otherwise persons eating them are liable to suffer severely. Several gentlemen of New Orleans have assured me, that they have seen persons at dinner obliged to leave the room at once, under such circumstances, which cannot well be described here. When flavoured with the ripe strawberries, on which they have fed, their flesh is truly delicious. This species performs its migrations by night as well as by day. Its flight is rather swift and well sustained. While travelling, it generally flies so high as to be beyond reach of the gun: but if the weather be cloudy, or if it blow hard, it flies lower, and may easily be shot. It generally proceeds in straggling bands, and moves along with continuous easy beats of the wings, but sails, as it were, when about to alight, as well as during the love season.