THE SHORE PATROL 205 



along the Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains, returning 

 from July to October by the Atlantic coast route in large 

 numbers, though many, even then, take the inland route. 



It is June before the last migrant waders have passed the 

 New England shores, and by early July they begin to straggle 

 back again, so that the stay of some of them in the North is 

 but short. Among the first to return are the little sandpipers 

 known as " Peep " or " Ox-eyes," the Least and Semipal- 

 mated Sandpipers. The little Ring-necked Plovers and the 

 Lesser (or "Summer") Yellow-legs soon follow. The bare 

 flats again begin to be dotted with nimble little forms, and 

 the shrill, piping whistle of the Yellow-legs on the marshes is 

 a characteristic sound. The Sanderling our only sandpiper 

 that, plover-like, has not even a rudimentary hind toe soon 

 becomes common on the flats and beaches, and presently 

 small parties of the Knot (or Gray-back), Dowitcher (or Red- 

 breasted Snipe), and Black-bellied Plover (or " Beetle-head ") 

 appear. The Spotted Sandpipers, notable for their habit of 

 teetering the body, the commonest shore-bird breeding in New 

 England, now gather on the shores of the bays or on stony 

 beaches, where the gay-colored Turnstone, singly, or in small 

 parties, begins to be seen. By August a few Willets may be 

 found on the beaches and sand-flats, and the Upland Plovers 

 or Bartramian Sandpipers frequent certain hilly pastures not 

 far from salt water. By this time, scattering Bonaparte's (or 

 White-rumped) Sandpipers have joined the flocks of small 

 waders, flocks of Pectoral Sandpipers (or " Grass-birds ") and 

 Greater (or "Winter") Yellow-legs appear on the marshes, 

 and the pretty little sand-colored Piping Plover, which has 

 remained to breed, gains its greatest abundance through 

 accessions of young birds, and some that have been farther 

 north. A few Hudsonian (or " Jack ") Curlew, wary fellows, 

 with long, decurved bills, roam about behind the beaches. 



