UP THE RIVER 



383 



side of the bar to feed, but 



I've never seen them 



there. They mostly 



do their coming 



and going at 



night — and fly 



high too, even 



" Sandpipers don't ^ \^^ .jM^Mi 



bore in the ground f^i^X'' ir|^tj»irv » 



for their food, but just W^'\^k ■ "**"^^'^ - 



pick it up ; so they keep ^ 



along the shore of either Wilson's Snipe. 



fresh or salt water, some kinds choosing one place and 

 some another. The Spotted Sandpiper is another of 

 the little fellows who sometimes nests back in those 

 meadows. He is not a bit shy, but runs about as tame 

 as a Robin, and he isn't as big as a Robin either. 

 Sometimes they lay their eggs in the meadow and 

 sometimes among the tuft-grass back of the beach. 

 They lay four eggs, very big at one end and peaked at 

 the other, and put them in the nest with the pointed 

 ends together in the middle, to take up less room ; and 

 they're sandy-colored, spotted all over. They hang 

 about here all summer. We call them 'teeters' because 

 they always tip up their tails and bob so when they 

 run. They whistle like this, ' tweet-weet — tweet- 

 weet ! ' 



" There's another mite of a Sandpiper that comes 

 around here late every summer, though it nests way up 

 north. It is the very littlest of all, not bigger than a 

 Sparrow, so pretty and innocent-looking that it ought to 



