182 LITTLE SANDPIPER.
would Haste done on finding that their grog had been stopped. For
mv part, £ Cult as happy as when, on the same coast, I I'or the first
time saw the nest and eggs of the Black-crowned Warbler, of which
yon have read an account in: the seeond volume of this work. Four
beautiful eggs, larger than I had expected to see produced by birds
of so small a size, lay fairly beneath SLJ eye as I knelt over them
for several minutes in perfect ecstasy. The nest bait been formed
first, apparently, by the patting of the little creature's feet an the
Grisp moss, and in the s ight hollow thus produced were laid a few
blades of slender dry grass bent in a circular manner, the internal diameter
of the nest being two inches and a half, and its- depth an inch
and a quarter. The eggs,, which were in shape just like those of the
Spotted Sandpiper, Totanm mamkuriwt measured seven and a half
eighths of an inch in length,, and three-fourths, of an inch in breadth.
Their ground colour was a rich cream-yellow tint, blotched and dotted
with very dark umber,, the markings larger and more numerous toward
the broad end. They were placed with them pointed ends' together,
and were qjdte fiesk. The nest lay under the lea of a small rock,, exposed
to all. the heat the son can afford in that country.. No sooner had
the little creatures: felt assured that I had discovered their treasure,
than they manifested a great increase of sorrow, Hew from the top of
one crag: to another in quick successions and emitted notes resembling
the syllables peep, J?eet,. whieh were by no means agreeable to my feeL
nigs, for I was- truly sorry to rob them of their eggs, although impelled
to do so- by the Ioveof science, whiehaffords a convenient excuse
for even worse acts.
This pair, however, would seem to have been late in depositing
their eggs, for am the 4th of August my party and myself saw young
birds almost as large as their parents, and agreeing in almost every
point with the description» given of Triwja TrnmwMlm. Many small
flocks of these birds, consisting of aid and young, were already depart
k g from Labrador, and were .seen on all our excursions. On the llth
af August, we- also found adult and young in great numbers. But not
a single newly hatched individual of this species could I procure, while
the young of the King Haver were very abundant.
I was surprised,, whilst rambling along the shares of the Baritan
River, between Sew Jersey and Sew York, to find a great number of
Little Sandpipers, :<M the 29th of July 1832; leafing me to believe that
LITTLE SANDPIPER. 183
they had probably bred on the elevated portions of Staten Island, although:
on the other hand, they might have been barren birds. I have
been equally astonished to see large flocks of this species on the sandbars
along the shores ¡of the Ohio, below the great Rapids, about the
middle of: August. According to Dr RICHARDSON, it " breeds within
the Arctic Circle, arriving as soon as the snow melt®. It was observed
on the 21st of May, on the swampy borders of small lakes in latitude
| g § The crops of those we killed were filled with a soft blackish
earth, and some white worms;" From the above quotation, I would
be almost inclined to. believe that, like some others of our birds, whieh
are said to be found in northern Europe, this might be one.
The habits: of the Little Sandpiper have been described with great
èarë and accuracy by my « e n d THOMAS NOT-TALL. His ¡recount is fn:
deed so perfect that I shall here lay it before you in preference to -one
by myself. " The Peeps, as they have boon called, are seen in the salt
marshes around Boston-, às early as the 8th of July ; indèed* so seldom
are they absent from us in the summer season, that they might be taken
for denizëns of thè state, or .the heighbouriag countries. When they
arrivés now and then .accompanied by the semi-palmated species, the
air it sometimes,- as it were, clouded with' their flocks. Companies led
from place to place in quest of food, are seen whirling suddenly in circles,
with a desultory flight, at a distance, resembling a swarm of hiving
bees, seeking out .some object on which to settle. At this time,
deceiving them by an imitation of their sharp and querulous whistle,
the fowler approaches, and adds destruction to the confusion of their
timorous and restless flight. Flocking tógèther for common security,
the fall of their companions, and their plaintive cry, excité so much
sympathy among the harmless Peeps, that, forgetting their own safety,
or not well perceiving the cause of the fatality which the gun spreads
among them, they fall sometimes in such a state of confusion, as to be
routed with but little effort, until the greedy sportsman is glutted with
his timorous and infatuated game When much disturbed, they,
however, separate into small and wandering parties, and are now
seen gleaning their fare of larvse, worms, minute shell-fish, and insects,
in the salt marshes, or on the muddy and sedgy shores of tide rivers
and -ponds. At such times they may be very nearly approached, betraying
rather a heedless familiarity than a timorous mistrust- of their
most wily enemy ; and even when rudely startled, they will often re