THE SHORE PATROL 
205 
along the Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains, returning 
from July to October by the Atlantic coast route in large 
numbers, though many, even then, take the inland route. 
It is June before the last migrant waders have passed the 
New England shores, and by early July they begin to straggle 
back again, so that the stay of some of them in the North is 
but short. Among the hrst to return are the little sandpipers 
known as “ Peep ” or “ Ox-eyes,” —the Least and Semipal- 
mated Sandpipers. The little Ring-necked Plovers and the 
Lesser (or “Summer”) Yellow-legs soon follow. The bare 
flats again begin to be dotted with nimble little forms, and 
the shrill, piping whistle of the Yellow-legs on the marshes is 
a characteristic sound. The Sanderling — our only sandpiper 
that, plover-like, has not even a rudimentary hind toe — soon 
becomes common on the flats and beaches, and j^resently 
small parties of the Knot (or Gray-back), Dowitcher (or Red¬ 
breasted Snipe), and Black-bellied Plover (or “ Beetle-head”) 
appear. The Spotted Sandpipers, notable for their habit of 
teetering the body, the commonest shore-bird breeding in New 
England, now gather on the shores of the bays or on stony 
beaches, where the gay-colored Turnstone, singly, or in small 
parties, begins to be seen. By August a few Willets may be 
found on the beaches and sand-flats, and the PJpland Plovers 
or Bartramian Sandpipers frequent certain hilly pastures not 
far from salt water. By this time, scattering Bonaparte’s (or 
White-rumped) Sandpipers have joined the flocks of small 
waders, flocks of Pectoral Sandpipers (or “ Grass-birds ”) and 
Greater (or “Winter”) Yellow-legs appear on the marshes, 
and the pretty little sand-colored Piping Plover, which has 
remained to breed, gains its greatest abundance through 
accessions of young birds, and some that have been farther 
north. A few Hudsonian (or “Jack”) Curlew, wary fellows, 
with long, decurved bills, roam about behind the beaches. 
