390 The Water-fowl Family 



about the beaches, feeding at the water's edge, 

 often rising in a cloud, showing now white, now 

 dark, as the birds in unison turn breasts or backs 

 to the light. This species is less of a marsh bird 

 than its associate, the least sandpiper, and prefers 

 the sandy, muddy flats, left bare by a falling tide. 

 In places where thick eel-grass is exposed at low 

 water, they often congregate on the surface, giving 

 the appearance a short distance off of walking 

 on the water. Early to come and early to go, 

 most of the peep are southward bound before the 

 middle of August, following our coast to the West 

 Indies and South America, where they winter, to 

 return in May along the same courses. They 

 breed in the regions about the shores of the 

 Arctic Sea, from Labrador to Alaska. The nest 

 has been found in the Barren Grounds and on the 

 islands. It is placed on the grass or moss, and 

 incubation is established in June. The young 

 fly in July. While this bird is found chiefly in 

 the eastern portions of North America, in the 

 West giving place to the western variety, it is 

 abundant along the Mississippi Valley and in 

 Texas, and is said to be common in Alaska. The 

 semipalmated sandpiper with the least, in locali- 

 ties, goes by the name of ox-eye. Like the other 

 small sandpipers it is friendly and unsuspicious 

 and will continue feeding within a few feet of an 

 observer, if he refrains from sudden movements. 



