LEAST SANDPIPER. 



137 



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 neighbor- 

 ing 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 are wholly unknown. 



When they arrive, now and then accompanied by the Semi- 

 palmated 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 swarm of hiving bees seeking 

 out some object on which to settle. At this time, deceiving 

 them by an imitation of their sharp and querulous whistle, the 

 fowler approaches, and adds destruction to the confusion of 

 their timorous and restless flight. Flocking together for com- 

 mon security, the fall of their companions and their plaintive 

 cry excites so much sympathy among the harmless Peeps that, 

 forgetting their own safety, or not well perceiving the cause of 

 the fatality which the gun spreads among them, they fall some- 

 times into such a state of confusion as to be routed with but 

 little effort, until the greedy sportsman is glutted with his timo- 

 rous and infatuated game. When much disturbed they, how- 

 ever, separate into small and wandering parties, where they are 

 now seen gleaning their fare of larvae, worms, minute shefl- 

 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 nearly 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 



