332 Wilson's sandpiper. 



with different wants and predilections from the preceding hosts, whose 

 general liverj they wear, they never seemingly diverge in their passage 

 so far to the eastward as to visit Greenland, and the contiguous 

 extremity of northern Europe, being unknown in the other continent; 

 and migrating always towards the south, they have thickly peopled 

 almost every part of the country that gave them birth. 



The Peeps as they are here called, are seen in the salt marshes around 

 Boston, as early as the 8th of July ; indeed, so seldom are they absent 

 from us in the summer season, that they might be taken for denizens 

 of the State, or the neighboring countries, did we not know that they 

 repair, at an early period of the spring, to their breeding resorts in the 

 distant north; and that, as yet, numerous and familiar as they are, the 

 nest, and history of their incubation, is wholly unknown. 



When they arrive, now and then accompanied by the semipalmated 

 species, the air is 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 

 Bwarm of hiving Bees, seeking out some object on which to settle. 

 At this time, deceiving them by an imitation of iheir sharp and 

 querulous whistle, the fowler approaches, and adds destruction to the 

 confusion of their timorous and restless flight. Flocking together for 

 common security, the fall of their companions, 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 sports- 

 man is glutted with his timorous and infatuated game. When much 

 disturbed, they however, separate into small and wandering parties, 

 where they are now seen gleaning 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 

 neaily approached, 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 scooping in the mud, and hence 

 probably originated the contemptible 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 discover and rout from their hidden retreats, the larvae aid soft 

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

 also give chase to insects, and pursue their calling 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 sportsman, these little timorous 



