2o8 BIRD-LAND ECHOES. 



The " peeps" on Duck Island are always enter- 

 taining. They have less musical ability than piping 

 plovers, but are by no means mute ; and when they 

 wander from the water's edge and run like mice 

 through the grass, their single note much resembles 

 the squeaking of that animal, but louder. They are 

 fond of very small fish, which they often find in the 

 little pools left by the outgoing tide ; but these birds 

 show to most advantage when they keep together ; 

 when they feed, as a close-ranked company, on the 

 sands bared by wane of tide; or when, taking 

 alarm, they rise in the air as one bird and move 

 here, there, backward and forward, urged by a com- 

 mon impulse, until beyond the reach of unaided 

 vision, now a streak of shining, snow-white light, 

 now but a dark line on the horizon. 



A word more concerning the wading birds of the 

 upper Delaware. The increase of population, the 

 deforesting of countless acres of land, the defile- 

 ment of the river water, the greed of brutes yclept 

 sportsmen, and the building of houses close to the 

 shore, to say nothing of steamboats and river-craft 

 of every sort, have necessarily resulted in great 

 changes in our avi-fauna. It is strange that any 

 bird will run the gauntlet of a dozen towns to find 

 a bit of wild river-shore. We have, besides these 

 that I have mentioned, other water-birds, but 

 nowhere and at no time are they abundant, save 

 when a violent storm temporarily stays their migra- 

 torial progress ; yet there was a time when very many 

 of our larger sand-pipers and other birds, now con- 



