308 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



is not so rapid and pronounced as that of the latter; it is 

 confined more to nodding, and there is less movement of the 

 hinder parts. The bird is graceful and elegant in shape, inoves 

 lightly and flies swiftly and easily. Often, when alighting, it 

 holds its long wings straight up and closes them slowly, as is 

 shown in the cut, exhibiting the beautiful markings of the 

 under wing coverts and axillars. When the ponds and lakes 

 of the interior are low, after a long drought in August or Septem- 

 ber, this bird may be seen about the sand bars searching for 

 its favorite food. Often it wades into the water up to its 

 belly, but I never have seen it swim. 



In the fall, on its return from the north, it has a habit of 

 wading into the water in stagnant ditches or ponds, where it 

 advances one foot at a time, and by rapidly moving the forward 

 foot stirs up the vegetation at the bottom ever so slightly. 

 This motion is so swift and delicate that the leg seems to be 

 merely trembling, as if the bird were chilled by contact with 

 the water, but it is done with intent to disturb insects among 

 the algse at the bottom without roiling the water, and the eager 

 bird, leaning forward, plunges in its bill and head, sometimes 

 to the eyes, and catches the alarmed water insects as they 

 dart away. I have watched this carefully with a glass while 

 lying in the grass only ten or twelve feet from the bird. It is 

 easy by stirring the bottom slightly with a stick to cause a 

 similar movement of the water insects, but I never could 

 agitate it so delicately as to avoid clouding the water with 

 sediment from the bottom. 



Audubon states that he has found stomachs of this species 

 filled with aquatic insects, caterpillars of various kinds and 

 black spiders. Professor Aughey examined the stomachs of 

 two birds; one contained nine locusts and thirty-four other 

 insects, the other a grasshopper and forty-three other insects. 

 Dr. Warren examined eleven stomachs and found in ten of 

 them "worms," beetles or other insects and one contained 

 "small shells." 



