AMERICAN STINT. 215 



the middle of the migration season. On the sandy beach of the Atlantic 

 not a bird was to be seen, except now and then a stray Forster's Tern from 

 Cobb's Island. The sand evidently had no charm for the Sandpipers I was 

 in search of. They do not deserve their name ; these little Tringae are not 

 so much Sandpipers as mud-larks. We tried to make a short cut to the 

 creek through the forest ; but our short cut proved a long round, though 

 we were amply repaid for our labour by the abundance of bird life. 

 Turkey-Buzzards were very common, sometimes perched on the bare 

 branches of an old pine, but more often soaring in majestic grandeur, 

 scarcely deigning to move a pinion. Ospreys were quite as abundant, and 

 the forest was full of small birds. "We heard them on every side, from the 

 harsh cry of the Great Belted Kingfisher to the melodious warble of a 

 Mimus of some kind. Great Blue Herons as large as Cranes were to be 

 seen standing in the water, and a flock of Little Egrets enlivened the 

 scene. When the tide was down, the creek was almost dry, and wide 

 stretches of mud spread out in various directions. Here the Sandpipers 

 swarmed. They were very gregarious and also social. The commonest 

 species was the Semipalmated Sandpiper, a bird scarcely to be distinguished 

 from the Little Stint. Amongst these birds were a few with longer bills, 

 which are said to be the eastern form, and also a few American Stints. 

 These three species kept together very closely like Dunlins, their wings 

 often flashing in the sun as they wheeled round in concert, as if moved by 

 one impulse. Among them were occasionally to be seen a few Semi- 

 palmated Plovers ; but these latter birds kept in a small flock to them- 

 selves, often wandering on the sand, as did also the Killdeer Plovers, 

 though there were very few of them. One solitary bird preferred a pool 

 in a corner of the creek, and proved, after I shot it, to be a Solitary 

 Sandpiper. 



The breeding-season of the American Stint is in June, and the eggs 

 are generally laid during the las't ten days of that month, or the first 

 week of July. It breeds abundantly on the tundras, up to the shores of 

 the Arctic Ocean, also on fog-encircled Labrador, where Dr. Coues observed 

 it in considerable numbers. Audubon found the nest of this bird in 

 Labrador, amongst the moss-covered rocks near the shore. The nest is 

 slight, and consists of a little depression, either scratched out by the birds 

 or one selected for the purpose ready-made, scantily lined with a few dead 

 leaves and bits of dry grass. Usually the nest is made close to the margin 

 of a small lake or pool, more rarely near the coast ; it is often sheltered 

 by a little bush, or sometimes by a large stone. The eggs are always four 

 in number when the full complement is laid. In ground-colour they are 

 dull buff, spotted and blotched with reddish brown, and with paler and 

 somewhat indistinct underlying markings. Most of the spots are congre- 

 gated on the large end of the egg, often becoming confluent. They are 



