Notes on the Spotted Sandpiper 83 



night before. One of the chicks left the nest with vigorous 

 chirps, and joined the mother near by. One other chick, 

 though not yet dry, was endeavoring also to leave the nest. 



As I lay within two and a half feet of the nest, the old bird 

 came and pecked at an egg shell, and then sat down. Two of 

 the chicks climbed onto the mother's back. 



I was able to distinguish two calls of the adult birds. One 

 might be called the alarm note, which gives warning to the 

 young of danger; it is simply a repetition of a single note, 

 thus: "Peet-peet-peet-peet," etc. The other might be called 

 a song, for the parent sings it as she coddles the young. It 

 runs thus : ' ' Tr-tr-tr weet, tr-tr-tr weet, tweet, tweet, tweet, 

 tr-tr-tr." 



One of the first acts of the old bird was to pick up one of 

 the half shells and carry it to the water's edge, where it was 

 dropped. A little later she bit off some pieces from the small 

 part of the shell and swallowed them. At 5 :30 A. M. she 

 carried oft' the second half shell and dropped it at the lake 

 shore as before. At 6 :00 A. M. she cleaned out the nest, 

 eating a number of small bits of shell, some of which she 

 obtained by scatching in the grass; the last large piece of 

 shell was carried to the shore as before, but this time she 

 held it under the water and shook it. The shell was then 

 eaten, thus departing somewhat from the previous conduct. 



At 6 :10 A. M., when the old bird returned, two of the young 

 were about twenty feet away in the grass. Up to this time a 

 close watch had been kept as to the feeding of the young 

 birds. The parent was not observed to bring any food to the 

 nest. But now the two little chicks which had left the nest 

 were observed to pick at the grass as if in the act of catching 

 insects. And with continued observation I concluded they 

 were feeding, all of which the old bird watched attentively. 

 On one occasion a garter snake came to the vicinity of the 

 nest, but was warded away from the direction of the young 

 birds by the vigorous wing action of the parent. 



On the 17th the place was again visited for the pui-pose 

 of photographing the young. Two were found and photo- 

 graphed ; the other two were seen to run off in the grass, but 



