Wilson's sandpiper 123 



tion to the confusion of their timorous and restless flight. 

 Flocking together for common security, the fall of their com- 

 panions, and their plaintive cry, excites so much sympathy 

 among the harmless Peeps, that, forgeting their own safety, 

 or not well perceiving the cause of the fatality which the gun 

 spreads among them, they fall sometimes into 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, where they are now seen glean- 

 ing their fare of larvae, 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 ap- 

 proached, betraying rather a heedless familiarity, than a 

 timorous mistrust of their most wily enemy ; and even when 

 rudely startled, they will often return to the same place in 

 the next instant, to pursue their lowly occupation of scoop- 

 ing in the mud, and hence probably originated the contemp- 

 tible appellation of humility, by which they and some other 

 small birds of similar habits have been distinguished. For 

 the discovery of their food, their flexible and sensitive awl-like 

 bills are probed into the mire, marshy soil, or wet sand, in the 

 manner of the Snipe and Woodcock, and in this way they dis- 

 cover and route from their hidden retreats, the larvas and soft 

 worms which form a principal part of their fare. At other 

 times, they also give chase to insects, and pursue their call- 

 ing with amusing alacrity. When, at length startled, or 

 about to join the company they have left, a sharp, short and 

 monotonous whistle, like the word peet, or peep is uttered, 

 and they instantly take to wing, and course along with the 

 company they had left. On seeing the larger marsh birds 

 feeding, as the Yellow-Shanks and others, a whirling flock 

 of the Peeps will descend amongst them, being generally 

 allowed to feed in quiet ,• and on the approach of the sports- 



