A CURIOUS HABIT 149 



flight of a little party of cedar-birds. They 

 go in a loose, straggling flock, each in his 

 own way, without reference to the others, 

 excepting to keep in the same general direc- 

 tion ; now one is ahead, now another, some 

 are higher, some lower. It is true this has 

 its own charm, but it is the most careless 

 flight I know, and in comparing the two 

 one will realize how much character is ex- 

 pressed even in flight. 



Sandpipers have a curious habit, when 

 they alight on the shore in a flock, of stand- 

 ing a few seconds perfectly still as if turned 

 to stone, then suddenly with one accord 

 beginning to run around for food. Once I 

 caught a young family out with their mother 

 foraging for their supper. They were about 

 half the size of the mother, and she stood 

 perfectly still while the little flock ran about 

 in the liveliest way, catching, or at any rate 

 chasing, insects, with jerky motions like a 

 grasshopper, and never intermitting for a 

 moment the " teter." When the mother 

 wished to go she called, and the obedient 

 little ones at once followed her away. 



In another place I watched one of this 



