70 JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



lightly here and there over the muddy surface, snapping up insects 

 as he goes. Perhaps he will wade out into the margin of the 

 stream, flit across to the other shore, or be off to a distant part of 

 the meadow, just as the mood strikes him. 



A few hundred yards away the ocean sends its waves up against 

 endless miles of sandy beach. Here, too. Sandpipers are to be 

 found in numbers. It is amusing to watch them follow a receding 

 wave down the gradual incline and nimbly avoid the next one by 

 running Imck up the beach. Now and then, however, one miscal- 

 culates the speed of the onrushing water, and is compelled to resort 

 to his wings for escape. 



Back of the beach, above high water mark, in the thick grasses 

 that grow in the sand, there are perhaps nests. They are generally 

 pretty frail structures (sometimes being little more than mere de- 

 pressions in the sandy soil), and the eggs, numbering four, are col- 

 ored to harmonize with their surroundings. It is something of an 

 undertaking, therefore, to find a nest unless the old bird is flushed 

 directly off tlie eggs. Tlie young take to their legs almost immedi- 

 ately after hatching, and are indeed lively objects to pursue. 



In these parts (Staten Island, New York) Spotted Sandpipers 

 arrive in the spring on their way northward about the first week in 

 May. During this migration I think that fewer of these birds are 

 seen than in the fall, when the young return from the north. A 

 peculiar thing which I have noticed that these Sandpipers do at the 

 mating season is to raise their wings high over their backs directly 

 after lighting, and run about for a few seconds with their wings still 

 in that position. This u-as done for the most part when one bird 

 would light near another, on the ground. Possibly it is done only 

 by the males, and is a part of the mating ceremony. (I have 

 noticed a similar wing-raising habit in certain of the Plovers in 

 Illinois.) 



A few Sandpipers remain here every summer, and inhabit the 

 beaches and salt meadows. Previous to this year (1908) I had not 

 been able to find a nest, but had suspected that a few pairs nested 

 here. While preparing to photograph an adult Red-winged Black- 



