288 



AMERICAN ORXITHOLOGY. 



that she was singing to herself, and she never knew that she had an 

 appreciative audience. 



Even while she was sitting, she often teetered her head or tail, and, 

 when standing or just coming to the nest, her movements were so con- 

 tinuous and violent as to def}- the speed of the camera shutter. I made, 

 on different days, six negatives of her as she was about to step on the 

 nest and every one shows the jerky movement of either the head or tail, 

 even though some of them were made in one five hundredeth part of a 

 second. 



Several times the male bird came up to the edge of the pines and 

 conversed with her in low "pipings," but he never came to the nest, 

 and I do not think that he ever sat upon the eggs; at least, the bird that 

 I always saw seemed to be the same one. 



One morning I found but two small pieces of egg shell beside the 

 nest; the little ones were following their mother in the cornfield, but I 

 never saw them before they were able to fly. When hatched they are 





Young Sandpipers fire hatched covered ivith dou>n and foUinr their parents about irif/iin a few 

 hours after leaving the egg. 



