Northern Observations of Inland Birds 173 



and the wagtails have no little to do with the charm of 

 the rivers and burns whose margins they frequent. The 

 sandpiper does not hold an honoured place among the 

 best beloved birds of mankind for the reason that so few 

 are in intimate touch with it, but in character and dis- 

 position it is one of the most lovable of wild birds. Though 

 in a sense wild as the March wind, it has no great dis- 

 trust of man, and very soon a pair of these birds will 

 come to know certain individuals when their guileless 

 trust cannot help but win one's affections. Two of them 

 nested one year in a strawberry bed at the bottom of my 

 garden, and so tame did they become that the hen bird 

 almost permitted me to stroke her w^hile she was on her 

 nest. So long as she thought me occupied, she would 

 quietly sit her eggs while I worked within a yard or two, 

 looking about her with her bright eyes, and occasionally 

 pecking at an insect that settled near. Clearly she knew 

 that I and my household would do her no harm, and if 

 compelled to leave her nest, as she often was, she would 

 merely run a few yards, and stand there waiting. Perhaps 

 her mate would call to her, and together they would fly 

 far out across the loch on trembling wings, apparently 

 just for the joy of being together, but when the hen bird 

 thought it time to return she would come back to her 

 eggs and quietly take her place, even though she knew 

 human beings were watching. Season after season I 

 have watched the nesting of the sandpipers, and always 

 I have been impressed by their devotion, as by their 

 trusting and gentle ways. So far as I can judge the parent 

 birds share equally the task of incubation. While one 

 sits the other watches, ever ready with an alarm. On the 

 approach of danger the watching bird works itself into 

 a state of frenzied agitation ere the other deems it time 

 to leave the eggs. In photographing the birds, one 

 very soon learns that the male is much more timid than 



