324 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



and unless alarmed exhibits few of the motions for which it is 

 famous. 



The following, regarding its habits on the sea beach, is 

 taken from Dr. Townsend's Birds of Essex County: "It is 

 particularly fond of nesting on islands. I used to find the eggs 

 at Kettle Island off Magnolia, in the late seventies, and Mr. 

 W. A. Jeffries notes the finding of eleven nests with eggs and 

 one with young at Tinker's Island, off Marblehead, on June 

 8th, 1878. Four nests were in the short grass on high land, 

 'while others were all found more or less far under the rocks, 

 scattered over the grass or along the shore.' Nuttall speaks 

 of their nesting at Egg Rock, off Nahant, 'in the immediate 

 vicinity of the noisy nurseries of the quailing Terns.' The 

 young birds, while still covered with the natal down, run very 

 fast and when hard pressed, take to the water and swim rapidly 

 and easily. On the beach, the Spotted Sandpiper rarely strays 

 beyond the dry sand, often in the beach grass, where he hunts 

 for insects and occasionally perches on an old root or piece of 

 wreck. They are particularly fond of pebbly beaches." 



There seems to be good reason to believe that it migrates 

 by sea as well as by land in the fall, as formerly it was common 

 in Bermuda at that season. In winter it ranges south to 

 southern Brazil, passing through Mexico and Central America 

 as well as the Antilles. In spring it arrives usually in northern 

 Florida earlier than it appears in southern Louisiana. This 

 seems to indicate that the species comes north by way of the 

 Antilles and Florida, but as it is taken in Mexico and Lower 

 California in migration, it may reach Louisiana from the west- 

 ward, or cross the Gulf of Mexico from Yucatan or Central 

 America. Eaton states the belief that this species comes to 

 central and western New York by the Mississippi route, as it 

 arrives there seven to ten days earlier than on the coast. 



The food of the Tip-up consists largely of insects and earth- 

 worms. The bird apparently is harmless and very beneficial, 

 and, except along the sea-shore, where it is shot with other 

 Sandpipers for the table, it is killed mainly for sport. 



