36 



JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



coming exposed. The birds have stead- 

 ily arrived in small flocks until the flats 

 exposed are populated with hungry 

 birds running here and there, reminding 

 us of a colony of ants. 



Now if we try to approach too near 

 them, they stop, repeat the mnnoeuvres 

 already mentioned, and before we are 

 within a fair gun-shot distance, with a 

 few short notes of alarm, take wing, the 

 Sandpii)ers following, uttering their call 

 notes as they fly. again alighting some 

 distance away, to repeat the same move- 

 ments when we approach too near them. 



Another call reminds us a new species 

 has arrived. On they come, their wings 

 stroke slower and slowei', when with 

 motionless wings and a gliding move- 

 ment they alight on the flats at the edge 

 of the receding tide and at once com- 

 mence pursuing the minnows with which 

 the water abounds. 



These are the Greater Yellowlegs 

 (Totanus melanoleucus). 



With extended necks they run here 

 and there according to the movements 

 of tlieir prey, their long yellow legs 

 showing to the best advantage. When 

 we are discovered some of them stop, 

 make a few bows interspersed with a 

 dash after some object which attracts 

 their attention. Sometimes after their 

 hunger is satisfied, they will stand 

 motionless a long time with head hunch- 

 ed down upon their breast, which gives 

 them a dejected appearance. 



These birds are taken from blinds 

 built on the shores and marshes by 

 using dummy decoys and imitating their 

 call as they fly to and from their feeding 

 grounds. Sometimes they are very sol- 

 icitous, returning to their dead compan- 

 ions until the entire flock is killed. 



The tide now rapidly recedes, leaving 



all the bottom of the bay exi)Osed to 

 low tide limit, excepting a few small 

 channel ways which drain the marshes 

 at the head of the bay, emptying into 

 low tide waters perhaps a mile away. 



The sun high in the zenith, its fierce 

 rays beating down upon the corrugated 

 sand, causes the water in the wrinkles 

 to dance and glitter before our eves, 

 while from the higher ports a faint vapor 

 arises, causing a niiiage effect on the 

 scene. 



Scattered over the surface are to be 

 seen hundreds of the small biids men- 

 tioned, some searching lor food, others 

 standing motionless, while others plume 

 their feathers. Along the channel ways 

 may be seen a few Yellowlegs, while at 

 parts where the sand is softer a few 

 Dowitchers (Macrorhamphus griseus) 

 are to be seen probing the sand with 

 their long bills. 



These birds are usually very unsus- 

 picious, allowing us to approach very 

 near them, when they stop piobiug the 

 sand and stupidly gaze at us, their long 

 bills and shoit necks giving them a very 

 odd appearance. 



I have known eighteen of these birds 

 picked up from one disch:irge of a 

 gun, those which escaped alighting 

 again but a short distance away, allow- 

 ing the sportsman to repeat his depreda- 

 tions until every individual was killed. 



We now cross the bay our feet in some 

 parts leaving but a faint impression, 

 while at others we sink to our ankles in 

 silt. Ciossing a neck of land, studded 

 here and there with junipers, hay berry 

 bushes and the dwarf spruce trees pecul- 

 iar to the coast, we reach a long beach 

 which fronts the ocean. Here the rest- 

 lessness of old ocean is manifested by 

 the waves which advance and recede, 



