THE COMMON SANDPIPER. 321 



of the waters. Those dull uninteresting mud flats are 

 h^s storehouses ; those stretches of golden sand studded 

 with the white shining pebbles 'abound with the food 

 which he loves, the food on which his young can alone 

 reach maturity, and this circumstance is probably the 

 only explanation of his presence here. Sandpipers do 

 not commence their nesting duties immediately upon 

 their arrival, although they invariably arrive in pairs, 

 and seldom quit the water side during the whole period 

 of their stay. 



Sandpipers are incessantly in motion, and never 

 fail to amuse the observer with their merry gambols. 

 Now pausing for a moment, with head held suspi- 

 ciously erect, as if aware of your presencp, then again 

 returning to their labours. Nimbly they run over the 

 muddy wastes, skirting the very edge of the rippling 

 waves, or occasionally wading into them, to secure 

 a small insect or beetle, all the time jerking their short 

 tail, and now and then uttering their call notes. Re- 

 turning to the shore, they probe the mud with their 

 long slender beaks, and draw forth the mud worms and 

 various forms of aquatic insect life lurking there. The 

 Sandpiper is not formed for diving or swimm^ing, and 

 though you observe him carefully during the whole time 

 of his stay, you will never see him adopt these motions. 

 His long legs carry him to the depth he wishes without 

 wetting his plumage, save indeed the head, which is 

 sometimes, though rarely, submerged. He is a bird of 

 the shallows alone, and rarely if ever seen on the banks 

 of the deep waters, and no more fitted for a truly 

 aquatic life than the delicate .sylvan choristers them- 

 selves. 



Instances have been brought forward where the 

 Sandpiper has been known to swim. But this, as far as 



Y 



