ONTARIO 



silent ply eager oars to escape the blast. What is here to 

 entice the steps of the delicate birds ? Yet they have come, 

 urged by resistless impulse, and have made a nest on the 

 ground in some half- sheltered nook. The material was ready 

 at hand in the moss}' covering of the earth, and little care or 

 thought was needed to fashion a little bunch into a little home. 



" Four eggs are laid (they are buffy-yellow, spotted over with 

 brown and drab), with the points together that they may take 

 up less room and be more warmly covered. There is need of 

 this — such large eggs for so small a bird. As we draw near, 

 the mother sees us, and nestles closer still over her treasures, 

 quite hiding them in the covering of her breast, and watches us 

 with timid eyes, all anxiety for the safety of what is dearer to 

 her than her own life. Her mate stands motionless but not 

 unmoved, hard by, not venturing even to chirp the note of 

 encouragement and sympathy she loves to hear. 



"Alas, hope fades, and dies out, leaving only fear ; there is no 

 further concealment — we are almost upon the nest — almost 

 trodden upon she springs up with a piteous cry and flies a 

 little distance, re-alighting, almost beside herself with grief ; for 

 she knows only too well what is to be feared at such a time. 

 If there were hope for her that her nest was undiscovered, she 

 might dissimulate and try to entice us awaj^ by those touching 

 deceits which maternal love inspires. But we are actually 

 bending over her treasures, and deception would be in vain ; 

 her grief is too great to be witnessed unmoved, still less por- 

 trayed ; nor can we, deaf to her beseeching, change it to 

 despair* We have seen and admired her home — there is no 

 excuse for making it desolate ; we have not so much as touched 

 one of the precious eggs, and will leave them to her renewed 

 and patient care." 



Subgenus PELIDNA Cuvier. 



95. TRINGA ALPINA PACIFICA (Coues). 243 a. 



Red-Backed Sandpiper. 



Adult in summer : above chestnut, each feather with a central black 

 field, and most of them whitish-tipped, rump and upper tail-eoverts blackish, 



99 



