May 



up, the little group remained together in the dusk, 

 ever and anon piping out in unison a merry peal, 

 as of elfin laughter, high-pitched and continuous ; 

 or, as if one of their number had perpetrated the 

 most sandpiperly joke, and all together suddenly 

 saw the point of it. 



Although this flock never broke up, it was 

 evident that pairing was in progress, the males 

 from time to time fluttering round their pro- 

 spective partners with a sustained shrill piping 

 which ran up into a trill. 



Having been absent from Stretford until the 

 25th June, I was not a little surprised upon re- 

 turning to the marshy spot frequented by the 

 sandpipers to be greeted at once by their well- 

 known note. A male bird flew about us with the 

 anxious cry and drooping flight common with his 

 kind when disturbed in their breeding haunts, and 

 the inference was obvious that sandpipers had found 

 this low-lying, marshy spot sufficiently attractive to 

 deter them from faring higher up and farther north- 

 wards when their companions left us in May. 



Following the cock to a slight earthy elevation 

 he used as a point of look-out, I came at once upon 

 the female bird with four young ones feeding on 

 the mud by the water. The old bird uttered re- 

 peatedly an anxious " Pee . . . eep ! " as I approached, 

 but the young ones continued to run about the 

 mud and feed. These young birds were two or 

 three days old, and the relatively large size of a 



141 



