184 BOULDER REVERIES. 



by an orange colored pulp, with a pungent pep- 

 pery taste. The spike itself is about two and a 

 half inches in length and bears 160 of the ber- 

 ries. What insect, bird or mammal feeds upon 

 the fruit? Some form doubtless, which likes 

 quite a bit of pepper in its provender. 



Wherever a sandy or pebbly beach of any ex- 

 tent occurs along our inland streams, the "peet- 

 weet" or spotted sandpiper, 6 smallest of our na- 

 tive waders, may be seen on these mid-summer 

 days. Bobbiag and bowing its head, tipping 

 and teetering its tail, all jerks and quavers, it 

 wades the shallow water ; its bright eyes ever on 

 the alert for larva of water insect or the crawl- 

 ing form of some margin dwelling species. 



At this season, also, the bordered skipper, 

 smallest of our butterflies, 7 is a common object 

 among the dense grasses and sedges along the 

 marshy edges of the stream. Flitting hither 

 and thither, it alights for an instant on the 

 flower of balm or mint, then is up and off to a 

 leaf of sedge where, perchance, it drops an egg, 

 to take its chances in the battle of life. A deli- 



Actitis macularia (L.). 

 'Ancyloxypha'numitor Fab. 



