SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



distinct from the beach-loving birds. The 

 smallest sandpiper of all, the mud-peep or 

 least sandpiper, has the manners and customs 

 of its cousin of the beaches already described. 

 It is a gentle, confiding bird and when it is 

 intently feeding one can almost catch it under 

 one's hat. From the sand-peep it is distin- 

 guished by its slightly smaller size, by its 

 browner back, by its slightly decurved bill 

 and by the greenish-yellow legs. A sand-peep 

 in a flock of these birds of the marsh looks 

 decidedly sandy-colored and out of place. 



A larger edition of the least sandpiper, as 

 Ralph Hoffmann has well called it, is the pec- 

 toral sandpiper or grass bird, a bird I have 

 never seen outside of salt marshes. Unlike 

 most of the members of the sandpiper family, 

 the male grass bird is larger than the female. 

 It is a bird that at times visits the marshes 

 in numerous flocks, pouring down in great 

 flights from the north in the fall, but in the 

 spring it is not to be seen here, for it goes to 

 its breeding grounds by an inland route. Its 

 note is a rolling whistle like that of the peep, 

 but it also emits a characteristic grating 

 kriek. 



A familiar bird of the marshes, and one that 

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