WHERE RUNS THE TIDE. 



203 



seek a comfortable seat and watch the ever-shifting 

 scenes, and am only disappointed when the sandy 

 reaches next the water's edge are not made brighter 

 by the fairest, the liveliest, and, I fancy, the most 

 intelligent of all our wading birds, the piping plovers, 

 sanderlings, and " peeps." Everywhere I see ex- 

 amples of big brains in little bodies ; and just as 

 the ant is far ahead of the beetle and the gaudy 



"Peep." 



butterfly, so, it appears to me, these little beach 

 birds are quicker-witted than the curlews, godwits, 

 and bull-heads, those larger representatives of these 

 groups. This is not a matter of the slightest im- 

 portance, however. The fact that " peeps" and 

 plovers are here at times, and that I can see them, 

 alone concerns me. They are birds that leave music 

 behind them in the trackless air as surely as their 

 little footprints can be traced in the sand over which 



