BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 335 



Spotted Sandpiper. Tip-up. Teeter. 



Actilis laacularia. 



Length. — About seven and one-half inelies. 



Adult. — Above, olive-brown, ash-tinged; below, white, spotted with rounded 



blackish marks; a row of white spots on the wmg; outer tail featliers 



white-barred. 

 Young. — Breast unspotted, with a slight grayish cast on white of breast. 

 Nest. — On ground, on tlie shore of a pond or river, or in a field or pasture. 

 Eyus. — Buft'y, thickly speckled with dark brown and black; veiy large for the 



size of the bird, and quite xjointed at small end. 

 Season. — April to Se]3tember. 



The Spotted Sandpiper, once a common and familiar bird 

 along all our ponds and streams, is still fairly common in 

 suitable localities throughout the State, It is not a gre- 

 garious species, nor does it travel much along the seashore, 

 and so it has largely escaped the decimation that many 

 other Sandpipers have suffered at the hands of the gunner. 

 It is the only Sandpiper connnonly found about inland 

 waters in June and early July. As it walks it repeatedly 

 raises and lowers the hinder part of its body with a teeter- 

 ing motion. This is particularly noticeable when the bird 

 is alarmed, and uttering its cry oi peet-weet , 2ieet-weet. This 

 note is often repeated when the bird is startled, and may be 

 heard along the sandy margin of ponds or rivers in the dusk 

 of evening. Here it wades in, at times up to its belly. 

 On occasion it can swim well, and sometimes when wounded 

 and hard pressed it will dive deeply, using its wings and 

 flying swiftl}" under water, like a Loon. It often builds its 

 nest and rears its young in or near cultivated lands, at a con- 

 siderable distance from any water. The young are able to 

 run about soon after they are hatched, and they wander away 

 from the nest, brooded and cared for at need by the mother, 

 who is very solicitous for their welfare. Their safety lies 

 in their protective coloring. They are fed largely on insects, 

 and the parents in summer seem to be very fond of similar 

 food, which they pick up about cultivated fields. Like all 

 other birds of the field, this Sandpiper catches grasshop- 

 pers and locusts. Six of these birds dissected by Professor 

 Aughey in Nebraska contained ninety-one locusts and one 

 hundred and forty-two other insects. 



