192 THE COMMON SANDPIPER. 



months, seeking its insect prey on the pebbly 

 margin of our lakes and rivers. It leaves us in 

 the autumn ; but to what place it wings its flight 

 has not, we believe, been noticed. There is some- 

 thing peculiarly sweet and musical in the clear 

 piping cry of this elegant little bird, as it skims 

 along the shores of some of the northern lakes ; 

 the sound, on a still summer night, breaking at 

 intervals on the ear, then dying away in the 

 distance. These notes are rendered still more 

 pleasing, by the circumstance of their being con- 

 sidered as certain indications of the continuance 

 of fine weather, by the inhabitants of those dis- 

 tricts in which the sandpiper takes up its sum- 

 mer abode. 



In our island climate, it is always " a pleasant 

 thing to behold the sun," and those sights and 

 sounds of nature, which from their more frequent 

 occurrence in warm and genial seasons, are sup- 

 posed to foretel fine weather, are welcomed with 

 cheerful, sometimes with almost affectionate feel- 

 ings, by those whose amusements or employ- 

 ments lead them much into the open air. 



The pretty scarlet pimpernel, with its appro- 

 priate name, the shepherd's weather-glass, though 

 it brings not, like the song of the sandpiper, the 

 hope of settled fine weather, is said only to ex- 

 pand its blossom in the morning, when no rain 



