206 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



wander far inland in the Middle States, but in the 

 interior of the continent, along our large rivers, they 

 are abundant in the early autumn or late summer 

 southward migration. 



The true Sand-pipers are all most interesting birds, 

 and as so many of them are common to our inland 

 streams and one is almost a land bird, they are 

 pretty generally known. Along our river-shores 

 particularly these birds congregate in large num- 

 bers, and in August, when all nesting duties are 

 over, to see a troop of " tell-tales" or " yellow-legs" 

 running over the muddy flats at low tide and hear 

 their mellow whistling, as they take wing and go 

 speeding off to other watery wastes, is a pleasant 

 experience to him who loves a rational outing, an 

 outing not merely for muscular exercise, but for 

 mental. To realize what bird-life is we must do a 

 great deal more than merely collect the creatures and 

 measure to the thousandth of an inch their hind toes. 

 It is necessary to see the bird in life, and this phase 

 of bird-life, where we have the animal on land yet 

 forever in the water so far as length of limb will per- 

 mit, is one of the most entertaining. But it is not 

 only along the river-shore that we find the sand- 

 pipers. There is a dainty spotted one that is at home 

 even among the upland fields, and is as content with 

 a tiny brook as where the water is miles in width. 

 It is a bird, too, of our mill-ponds, and its cheery 

 peet-weet is as certain a sign of the coming of warm 

 weather when we first hear it as is that of any bird 

 of the field or forest. With few exceptions, the sand- 

 pipers are strictly migratory and breed in the far 



