ian 
448 P NrrHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
The Least Sandpiper or “ Peep” is so well known on 
our shores that any description is almost superfluous. It 
makes its appearance early in May, in small parties of 
five or six, and quickly proceeds to the most northern 
sections of the continent, where it breeds, and then im- 
mediately returns to our shores, where it remains until 
early in October, when it passes on to the South. Au- 
dubon, in describing its breeding habits, says, ‘ That 
this species is naturally disposed to seek alpine sections 
of the country for the purpose of reproduction, I obtained 
abundant proof whilst in Labrador, where I found it plen- 
tiful, and breeding on the moss-clad crests of the highest 
rocks, within short distances of the sea.” On finding the 
nest, he says, — 
“Four beautiful eggs, larger than I had expected to see pro- 
duced by birds of so small a size, lay fairly beneath my eye, as I 
knelt over them for several minutes in perfect ecstasy. ‘The nest 
had been formed first, apparently, by the patting of the little 
creatures’ feet on the crisp moss, and in the slight hollow thus 
produced were laid a few blades of slender, dry grass, bent in a 
circular manner; the internal diameter of the nest being two 
inches and a half, and its depth an inch and a quarter. The eggs, 
which were in shape just like those of the Spotted Sandpiper, 7. 
macularius, measured seven and a half eighths of an inch in length, 
and three-fourths of an inch in breadth. Their ground-color was a 
rich cream-yellow tint, blotched and dotted with very dark umber, 
the markings larger and more numerous toward the broad end. 
They were placed with their broad ends together, and were quite 
fresh. The nest lay under the lee of a small rock, exposed to all 
the heat the sun can afford in that country.” 
It is during the latter part of August and the greater 
part of September that this species is most abundant in 
New England, where it generally confines itself to the sea- 
coast, but sometimes penetrates to the large tracts of water 
in the interior, gleaning there its food of small shell-fish, 
crustaceans, and insects in the pools of water and on the 
