434 The IVater-fowl Family 



a shrill peetweet, the bird takes flight and with 

 quick, stiff beats of its wings moves on to some 

 old stump and goes through the same perform- 

 ance. At this time they have the responsibility 

 of a brood, and there are few more anxious parents. 

 If the young are threatened, their excitement be- 

 comes intense ; the old birds keep close by, now 

 running along just in front as if wounded, the 

 next minute alighting almost at your feet, utter- 

 ing all the time their plaintive cry. The female 

 has been observed in the act of carrying one of the 

 young between her thighs while in flight. The 

 young birds hide so well it is difficult to find them, 

 and if necessary have no hesitation in taking to the 

 water, where they swim and dive with the skill of 

 a duckling. Late in the summer we find them 

 in little flocks of from six to eight, the families 

 probably keeping together. They frequent the 

 marshes and often the beaches alongshore. At 

 this time the birds are fat and, while not especially 

 desirable for the table, are shot in some numbers 

 with other small peep. 



By the middle of August they are southward 

 bound, while some of the young birds linger later; 

 in the northern United States we see them no 

 more until early in the following spring, when 

 some bright morning in April they turn up, soon 

 frequenting locations where later they will nest. 

 May is their breeding time, and some ploughed 



