208 THE Birps Asout Us. 
within the limits of our villages. I have seen it along 
roadsides very often, but never so tame as in a vil- 
lage in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, where it fol- 
lowed a little creek that passed through the place, 
and ran under a simple bridge and was not disturbed 
by passing teams. It would leave the water and 
skurry over the dusty wagon-tracks, dodging the 
horses as do the English sparrows, and when in- 
duced to fly, only moved a few yards away. 
The Solitary Sand-piper, a little larger and darker- 
colored bird than the preceding, is another species 
that leaves what might be considered its proper 
haunts and comes very close to civilization. The 
name “solitary” is not altogether a well-chosen one. 
These birds appear in spring, and we often see a con- 
siderable number of them together. They are then 
usually about the wet meadows, and have a decided 
fancy for newly-ploughed fields where water lies in 
the furrows; and 
again, it is noth- 
ing unusual for 
one to be sur- 
prised in or very 
near a barn-yard, 
ae hunting for in- 
Solitary Sand-piper. sects in the very 
black, fetid, and 
repulsive pools. I have often been surprised at the 
actions of these birds when startled and forced to 
leave a spot to which they have been attracted. 
With a flirt of their slender wings they dart off, and 
gradually rise to an immense height and sometimes 

