The Spotted Sandpiper or "Peet-Weet" 



By Thomas Nuttall 



The Peet-weet is one of the most famiHar and common of all the New 

 England marsh birds, arriving along our river shores and low meadows about 

 the beginning of May. As soon as it arrives on the coast small roving flocks 

 are seen at various times of the day, coursing rapidly along the borders of 

 our tide-water streams. Flying swiftly and rather low, in circular sweeps alon^ 

 the meanders of the rock and river, and occasionally crossing from side to 

 side, they now present a more sportive and cheerful mien than they assume at 

 the close of autumn when foraging becomes less certain. While flying out 

 in these wild circuits, agitated by feelings superior to those of hunger and neces- 

 sity, we hear the shore reecho the shrill and rapid whistle of 'weet, 'weet, 'weet, 

 'weet, the note usually closing with something like a warble as they approach 

 their companions on the strand. The cry then varies to peet, 'weet, 'weet, 'weet, 

 becoming high and gradually declining into a somewhat plaintive tone. As 

 the season advances our lively little marine wanderers often trace the streams 

 some distance into the interior, resting usually in fresh meadows along the 

 grass, sometimes even near the house ; and .1 have seen their eggs laid in a 

 strawberry bed where the young and old, pleased with the protection afforded 

 them, familiarly fed and probed the margin of the adjoining duck-pond for 

 their usual fare of worms and insects. 



These birds have the very frequent habit of balancing or wagging the tail, 

 in which even the young join as soon as they are fledged. From the middle to 

 the close of May the pairs, receding from their companions, seek out a place for 

 the nest, which is always in a dry, open field of grass or grain, sometimes in 

 the seclusion and shade of a field of corn, but most commonly in a dry pasture 

 contiguous to the seashore. In some of the solitary and small sea islands several 

 pairs sometimes make their nests near each other, in the immediate vicinity of 

 the noisy nurseries of the quailing Terns. 



On being flushed from her eggs the female goes off without uttering any 

 complaint, but when surprised with her young she practices all sorts of dissimula- 

 tion common to many other birds, fluttering in the path as if badly wounded, and 

 generally proceeds in this way so far as to deceive a dog and cause it to overlook 

 her brood for whose protection these instinctive arts are practiced. Nor are the 

 young without their artful instinct, for on hearing the reiterated cries of their 

 parents they scatter about and squatting still in the withered grass almost exactly 

 their color, it is with careful search very difficult to discover them, so that in nine 

 times out of ten they would be overlooked. 



At a later period the shores and marshes resound with the quick, clear and 

 oft-repeated note of peet-zveet, peet-wcct, followed up by a plaintive call of the 

 young of pect, peet, peet, peet. If this is not answered by the scattered brood a 

 reiterated 'zveef, 'weet, 'weet, 'wait, 'wait, 'ivait is heard, the voice dropping on the 



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