UP THE RIVER 387 



Upper parts black or blackish, in summer with rusty-red edg- 

 ings and white tips of many feathers, in winter these edgings gray; 

 a light line over the eye and a dark line from the bill to the eye. 



Under parts white, tinged in summer with buff on the breast 

 and at all seasons mottled there with dusky. 



Middle tail-feathers blackish, the other ones plain gray with 

 white edgings, but without any black cross-bars. Bill black ; feet 

 greenish-gray, with a small hind toe like other Sandpipers', but no 

 sign of any web at the roots of the front toes. 



A Citizen of Xorth America, nesting far north, beyond the 

 United States, and travelling in large flocks in the fall to the West 

 Indies and Soutli America. 



A member of the guild of Ground Gleaners. It belongs to a 

 family of game birds, but it is a shame to shoot such a mite of a 

 bird lor the morsel of meat its tiny body affords — hardly one 

 mouthful. 



There is a brother of the Least Sandpiper, hardly any bigger, 

 and so much like it that you can hardly tell them apart, unless you 

 notice that this one has two little webs between the roots of the 

 front toes. This is the Semipalmated Sandpiper, for seimpal- 

 mnted means "half-webbed," as its toes are. Both kinds are called 

 "Peeps" by people who do not know the difference between them. 



The Virginia Rail 



Length nine and half inches, of which the long, slender, curved 

 bill makes an inch and a half. 



Upper parts mixed blackish and brown, growing brighter red- 

 dish-brown on the wings ; a light line over the eye and a dark one 

 tlirough the eye. 



Lender parts mostly cinnamon color, but distinctly barred with 

 black and white on the sides behind and under the tail and wings ; 

 the chin whitish. 



Feet big and clumsy, with very long toes in front — about as 

 long as the bill. 



A Citizen of temperate North America, nesting in the Xorthern 

 States and wintering in some of the Southern States. 



A member of the guild of Ground Gleaners, who does us no 

 harm and not much good, though it is a sort of game bird whose 



