202 The Spotted Sandpiper 



Our little friend is readily recognized. As it runs along the ground, 

 or by the margin of a pool or stream, you know it is a sandpiper from its 

 characteristic gait. All sandpipers are clad in grays and browns above, 

 and in white below ; but the Spotted Sandpiper, in adult plumage, has 

 conspicuous streaks and spots sprinkled over the white plumage of the 

 underparts. The young bird of the first summer and fall, however, is 

 only indefinitely gray on the breast and sides. It is almost never at 

 rest, for it has contracted a nervous habit of tilting its body incessantly. 

 Standing on the shore, it bows, bobs, jerks, tilts its body, yes, "teeters," 



\ve may call it. When it flies, too, it proclaims its 

 Attitudes and . . , . . . , , t , ' f . 



Flight identity. The wings are held below the level of the 



back with the tips well down, and are given a tremu- 

 lous, hovering motion, accompanied by loud cries of peet-weet, peet-zueet. 

 These traits have given this bird the names by which it is better 

 known than by its book-name, such as Teeter, Tip-up, Peet-weet, and so 

 on. I dislike, however, to record local names of birds, and thus help to 

 perpetuate them and the confusion they cause, for it would be much better 

 if every one of our birds was known by one generally accepted name. 

 The Spotted Sandpiper does not ask for the spacious lakes or broad 

 streams that many of its tribe require. The merest puddle or rill will 

 satisfy this species, and often we may run across it even in a dry pasture 

 or on a piece of ploughed land. Just a little wetness of low ground may 

 recommend a place as suitable for a summer home. Yet the bird is 

 far from averse to more water. One is almost sure to find it running 

 along the margin of a pond, lake, or river ; and the ocean-beach, particu- 

 larly when rocky, is attractive to it. In such places, when the nesting- 

 season is over, and the young are able to take care of themselves, we 

 may meet these Sandpipers in family parties, or in small flocks, not in 

 compact bodies, like various other sandpipers, but scattered ; and single 

 ones are sometimes found associated with flocks of other species. When 

 alarmed, the scattered company springs suddenly 

 Parties from the shore, circles out over the water, with rever- 



berating peet-iveet cries, and returns to a spot not 

 very far from the starting point. 



On the small inland waters there is but one species with which this 

 could readily be confused. This is the Solitary Sandpiper, a bird not at 

 all plentiful, which appears, usually singly or in pairs, as a migrant in 

 May, and again in August and September. A careful observer readily 

 may learn to distinguish them. Once I had a fine opportunity to see both 

 species together and note the differences. It was late in July, on Lake 

 Chautauqua, New York, on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution. 

 The bird-study class was out before breakfast, and was delighted to see 

 a flock of shore-birds resting on a sand-flat, among them Spotted Sand- 

 pipers and several Solitary Sandpipers. Behind some large trees we made 

 a close approach, and could see distinctly that the Solitary Sandpipers 

 were a trifle larger than the Spotted Sandpipers, were darker on the back, 



