106 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. 



ing a nail held crosswise in the hand, though it is louder 



and more full. This performance is generally restricted 



to late evening and early morning during the spring, but 



is occasionally practiced in the fall. 



Most of our transient visitant Snipe are true shore 



birds. Many of them are classed as game birds, and have 



„ . , . , now become so uncommon that, as 



Semipalmated _ ... 



Sandpiper before remarked, it requires a special 

 Ereunetespnsiiius. knowledge of tlicir wRys in order to 

 ^^^ ^ ' find them. But there are some species 



too small to be worthy the sportsman's attention, and they 

 are often numerous on our beaches. They are generally 

 known as Peeps or Ox-eyes, but in books are termed 

 Semipalmated Sandpipers — active little fellows, with 

 black, gray and rusty backs and white under parts, who 

 run along the shore, feeding on the small forms of life 

 cast up by the waves. They are sociable birds, and even 

 when feeding the members of a flock keep together, while 

 when flying they move almost as one bird. 



These Sandpipers visit us in May, when journeying to 

 their summer homes within the Arctic Circle, and return 

 in July, to linger on our shores until October. Their 

 call-note is a cheery, peeping twitter, ^vhich probably 

 suggested one of their common names. 



Plovers. (Family Charadriid^e.) 



Most Plovers differ from Snipe in possessing three 

 instead of four toes, and in having the scales on the tarsi 

 rounded, not square or transverse. Their bill is shorter 

 and stouter than that of Snipe, and they do not probe 

 for food, but pick it up from the surface. 



Although several species visit dry fields and uplands, 

 they are ranked as shore birds or bay birds, and, as with 

 Snipe, the species large enough to be ranked as game 



