MILL CREEK. 197 



tide sojourn here, and probably then mating occurs 

 among young birds, and former vows are renewed by 

 the older birds, if it is true of these, as of some others, 

 that they are mated for life. 



Wood-tattlers are contradictory creatures. They ap- 

 pear to be very timid, yet in fact are not very readily 

 frightened. As the bird before me was standing quiet- 

 ly at the edge of the water, not then engaged in feeding, 

 I sharply slapped my hands together. At the report, 

 up went the delicate, slender wings until they touched 

 above the bird's back, and then were deliberately folded. 

 Again I made the same noise, with the same effect ; and 

 then, repeating the sounds at shorter and shorter inter- 

 vals, kept the poor bird's wings trembling in a very 

 ludicrous manner. As soon as I ceased clapping my 

 hands, the bird resumed its position of contemplative 

 rest, except when stirred to action by the sight of some 

 delicate morsel of food creeping in the mud or water 

 before it. 



In time, as the outgoing tide enlarged the mud-flat, 

 and brought newer feeding -ground to view, the sand- 

 piper became more active and ran from side to side, as 

 though fearing some of the available food-supply might 

 be overlooked or escape. While so doing, a shadow 

 passed over the creek ; it was that of a buzzard, half a 

 mile away, and yet the sand-piper would run no risk, and 

 squatted so closely to the mud that I could not see it. 

 In this concealed position it remained fully one minute, 

 and then resumed its food-hunting calmly as before. 



At no time did the bird leave the little island and 

 wade out into the water. This was quite interesting to 



