34 BIRDS AND POETS 
the April sky, the wild goose, the curlew, the stork, 
the bittern, the sandpiper, etc., awaken quite a dif- 
ferent train of emotions from those awakened by 
the land-birds. They all have clinging to them 
some reminiscence and suggestion of the sea. Their 
cries echo its wildness and desolation; their wings 
are the shape of its billows. 
Of the sandpipers there are many varieties, found 
upon the coast and penetrating inland along the 
rivers and watercourses, one of the most interesting 
of the family, commonly called the ‘‘tip-up,” going 
up all the mountain brooks and breeding in the 
sand along their banks; but the characteristics are 
the same in all, and the eye detects little difference 
except in size. 
The walker on the beach sees him running or 
flitting before him, following up the breakers and 
picking up. the aquatic insects left on the sands; 
and the trout-fisher along the farthest inland stream 
likewise intrudes upon its privacy. Flitting along 
from stone to stone seeking its food, the hind part 
of its body “‘teetering” up and down, its soft gray 
color blending it with the pebbles and the rocks, or 
else skimming up or down the stream on its long 
convex wings, uttering its shrill cry, the sandpiper 
is not a bird of the sea merely; and Mrs. Thaxter’s 
poem is as much for the dweller inland as the 
dweller upon the coast : — 
