SPOTTED TATLER, OR PEET WEET. 163 



to the confines of the St. Lawrence^ or further ; but were 

 not seen by Dr. Richardson, or any of the Arctic expedi- 

 tions, in the remote boreal regions, or around Hudson's Bay, 

 as had been asserted by Hutchinson. It is also an acci- 

 dental visitor in the old continent, being sometimes observed 

 on the coasts of the Baltic, and in Germany, but still more 

 rarely in Great Britain. As to residence, therefore, the 

 Spotted Tatler may be considered as exclusively American, 

 and confined chiefly to the limits of the more temperate parts 

 of the Union. 



As soon as the Peet Weet arrives on the coasts, small 

 roving flocks are seen, at various times of the day, coursing 

 rapidly along the borders of our tide water streams, flying 

 swift and rather low, in circuitous sweeps along the mean- 

 ders of the creek or river, and occasionally crossing from 

 side to side, in rather a sportive and cheerful mein, than as 

 the needy foragers, they appear at the close of autumn. 

 While flying out in these wide circuits, agitated by superior 

 feelings to those of hunger and necessity, we hear the 

 shores re-echo the shrill and rapid whistle of 'tveet, 'weet, 

 'weet, \oect, and usually closing the note, with some- 

 thing like a warble, as they approach their companions on 

 the strand. The cry then again varies to 'peet, weet weet 

 weet, beginning high and gradually declining into a some- 

 what plaintive tone. As the season advances, our little 

 lively marine wanderers often trace the streams some dis- 

 tance into the interior, nesting usually in the fresh meadows 

 among the grass, sometimes even near the house and I 

 have seen their eggs laid in a strawberry bed, and the young 

 and old pleased with their allowed protection, familiarly fed 

 and probed the margin of an adjoining duck pond, for their 

 usual fare of worms and insects.* 



* This occurred at my friend Mr. Brown's, at West Cambridge. 



