SPOTTED SANDPIPER. l6l 



boreal regions or around Hudson Bay, as had been asserted by 

 Hutchinson. 



As soon as the Peet-Weet arrives on the coasts, small roving 

 flocks are seen at various times of the day coursing rapidly 

 along the borders of our tide-water streams, flying swift and 

 rather low, in circuitous sweeps along the meanders of the 

 creek or river, and occasionally crossing from side to side in 

 a more sportive and cheerful mien than they assume at the 

 close of autumn, when foraging becomes less certain. While 

 flying out in these wide circuits, agitated by superior feelings 

 to those of hunger and necessity, we hear the shores re-echo 

 the shrill and rapid whistle of 'weet, 'weet, 'weet, 'weei, usu- 

 ally closing the note with something like a warble as they 

 approach their companions on the strand. The cry then again 

 varies to 'peet, weet weet weet, beginning high and gradually 

 decHning into a somewhat plaintive tone. As the season 

 advances, our little lively marine wanderers often trace the 

 streams some distance into the interior, nesting usually in the 

 fresh meadows among the grass, sometimes even near the 

 house ; and I have seen their eggs laid in a strawberry bed, 

 whence the young and old, pleased with their allowed protec- 

 tion, familiarly probed the margin of an adjoining duck-pond 

 for their usual fare of worms and insects. 



Like the preceding species, but more frequently, they have 

 the 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, as they happen to arrive in the diff'erent climates 

 chosen for their summer residence, the pairs seceding from 

 their companions seek out a site for their nest, which is always 

 in a dry, open field of grass or grain, sometimes in the seclu- 

 sion and shade of a field of maize, but most commonly in a dry 

 pasture contiguous to the sea-shore ; and in some of the soH- 

 tary and small sea-islands, several pairs sometimes nest near to 

 each other, in the immediate vicinity of the noisy nurseries of 

 the quailing Terns. The nest, sunk into the bosom of a grassy 

 tuft, is slightly made of its withered tops, and with a thin 

 lining of hay or bent. The eggs, four in number, are of a 



VOL. II. II 



