BlEDS OF IXDIAXA. 713 



that clothe the rocks crouch lower still in fear. Overhead the Sea Gulls 

 scream as they winnow, and the Murres, all silent, ply eager oars to 

 escape the blast. What is here to entice the steps of the delicate 

 birds? Yet they have come, urged by resistless impulse, and have 

 made a nest on the ground in some half-sheltered nook. The material 

 was ready at hand, in the mossy covering of the earth, and little care 

 or thought was needed to fashion a little bunch into a little home. 

 Four eggs laid (they are buffy-yellow, thickly spotted over with brown 

 and drab), with the points together, that they may take up less room 

 and be more warmly covered; there is need of this, such large eggs 

 belonging to so small a bird. As we draw near, the mother sees us 

 and nestles closer still over her treasures, quite hiding them in the 

 covering of her breast, and watches us with timid eyes, all anxiety for 

 the safety of what is dearer to her than her own life. Her mate stands 

 motionless, but not unmoved, hard by, not venturing even to chirp the 

 note of encouragement and sympathy she loves to hear. 



"Alas! hope fades and dies. out, leaving only fear; there is no further 

 concealment — we are almost upon the nest — almost trodden upon, she 

 springs up with a piteous cry and flies a little distance, realighting, al- 

 most beside herself with grief, for she knows only too well what is to 

 be feared at such a time. If there were hope for her that her nest 

 were undiscovered, she might dissimulate and try to entice us away by 

 those touching deceits that maternal love inspires. But we are actually 

 bending over her treasures, and deceptions would be in vain; her grief 

 is too great to be witnessed unmoved, still less portrayed; nor can we, 

 deaf to her beseeching, change it into despair. We have seen and ad- 

 mired the home — there is no excuse for making it desolate; we have 

 not so much as touched one of the precious eggs, and will leave them 

 to her renewed and patient care." (Coues, Birds of N". W., p. 483). 



Subgenus Pklidna Cuvier. 



97. (243a). Tringa alpina pacifica (Coues). 



Red-backed Sandpiper. 

 Synonyms, Amkkicax Dcxmx, Bla( k Breahst. 



Adult in Summer. — Above, chestnut, each feather with a central 

 black field, and most of them whitish-tipped; rump and upper tail 

 coverts, blackish; tail feathers and wing coverts, ashy-gray; quills, 

 dusky with pale shafts; secondaries, mostly white, and inner primaries, 

 edged with the same; under parts, white; belly, with a broad, jet black 

 area; breast and jugulum, thickly streaked with dusky; bill and feet. 



