THE SANDI'IPEKS. O07 



by 10,000 every three yours ; and, thorofoi'c, every four O's in the former lumiber will 

 answer to three years. There are between seven and eight ; take the larger, or eight ; 

 and in twenty-four years the productive power of fish would, not in the whole number, 

 but the last brood from a single pair, concert into fish as much matter as there is in the 

 whole solar system, sun, planets, gatellites, altogether ! 



" The conclusion is abundantly startling, and yet it is fax- — to our comprehension, 

 infinitelj' far — below the truth. It is one of the lowest rates, in a single one out of 

 countless myriads, and that one gx'eatly under-estimated, What, thou, shall wc think of 

 the whole ! '' 



A writer in the vicinity of Clitheroe, in Lancashii-e, says, " The Common Sandpijier 

 breeds with us ; and I, this year, started an old one from her nest,- at the root of a tir- 

 tree. »She screamed out, and rolled about in such a manner, and seemed so completely 

 disabled, that, although perfectly aware that her intention was to allure me from her nest, 

 I could not resist my inclination to pursue her, and, in consequence, I had great difficulty 

 in finding the nest again. It was built of a few dried leaves of the Weymouth pine, 

 and contained three young ones just hatched, and an egg, through the shell of which the 

 bill of the j'oung chick was just making its way ; yet, J'oung as they were, on my taking 

 out the egg to examine it, the little things, which could not have been out of their shells 

 more than an hour or two, set off out of the nest with as much celerity as if they had 

 been running about a fortnight. As I thought the old one would abandon the egg if the 

 young ones left the nest, I caught them again, and covering them up with my hand for 

 some time, they settled down again. Next day all four had disappeared." 



THE SPOTTED SANDriPER.f 



Audubon, in his Ornithological Biography, thus refers to a power possessed by birds, — 

 that of being able to move their eggs when danger threatens : " My esteemed friend, 

 Thomas Maccidloch of Picton, Nova fScotia, having transmitted to mo a curious account 

 of the attachment of one of these birds to her eggs, I hero insert it with pleasure. 

 ' Being on an excursion to the Hardwood Heights, which rise to the west of Picton, my 

 attention was attracted by the warble of a Little bird, which appeared to me entirely new, and 

 •which proceeded from a small thicket a short way off. Whilst, crossing an intervening- 

 meadow, I accidentally raised a spotted sandpiper from its nest, and having marked the 

 spot, I hastened forwards ; but the shyness of the object of my piu-suit rendered all my 

 eftbrts unavailing, and," returning to the nest I had just left, I expected to find it still 

 unoccupied ; but the sandpiper had again resumed her place, and loft it with great 

 reluctance on my near approach. The nest contained four eggs, which I determined to 

 remove on my return at night, and for the purpose of preventing the bird sitting again 

 upon them, I placed a number of stones in a slanting position over the nest, and so close 

 that it was impossible for the bird to get into it. On my return in the evening, however, 

 I observed the little creature rise from beside the stones apparently in greater trepidation 

 than ever, and more anxious to draw me away by the exhibition of all those little arts 

 which they practise for this purpose. On examining the spot I was very much surpi-ised 

 to find that the poor thing had not only hollowed out a new nest, but had actually succeeded 

 in abstracting two eggs from the other nest. How the bird had contrived to move the 

 eggs I cannot conceive, as the stones remained unaltered. This attachment to its nest 

 and eggsappeared to me more singular as the bird had but just commenced incubation, 

 the eggs exhibiting very little appearance of the young.' " 



* Ti-inga Hypolciicos. — Pcnii, t Tringu Macularia. — Pciui. 



