322 RURAL BIRD LIFE, 



I can learn, has only occurred when the bird has been 

 wounded, and taken to the water to escape capture, or 

 unwittingly fallen into it I have known a Blackbird, a 

 young bird and scarcely able to fly, swim or rather^6'^/ 

 on the surface of a sheet of water over which it endea- 

 voured to cross on pinions which proved unable to carry 

 it in safety. The poor bird struggled hard to gain the 

 shore, and I may say floated admirably, yet one could 

 plainly see he was in an element Nature never intended 

 him to be. His plumage soon got saturated, his 

 struggles more and more feeble, and at last he lay life- 

 less on the water. These remarks are analogous with the 

 swimming Sandpiper ; for although he is a bird destined 

 to seek his sustenance on the borders of the waters, and 

 in their shallows as far as his legs will support him, still 

 he is no more fitted to swim through them or dive under 

 their surface than the poor unfortunate songster men- 

 tioned above. 



Few birds indeed are more attached to their haunt 

 than the little Sandpiper. Yearly they return to their 

 old breeding ground^., and though you plunder their 

 nests and otherwise disturb them, tliey still return with 

 unfailing certainty to the home of their choice. 



We often see the Sandpiper running as nimbly on 

 the walls as round the edge of the water ; yet I cannot 

 find that they perch in trees, although the formation of 

 their feet does not prevent them from so doing. Another 

 peculiarity attached to birds of the wading tribe alone is 

 the practice of flying with the wings greatly curved, 

 more so than any other class of birds. I often see the 

 Sandpiper mark the course of his rapid flight by a series 

 of rings made by his arched pinions striking the placid 

 surface of the waters. 



But time passes rapidly away, and the purpose 



