126 With Rod and Gun in New England 



" Decidedly, this is getting interesting," exclaimed the Doctor. 



" Glorious," said the Judge," it is one of the grandest storms I ever 

 witnessed." 



While they were commenting on the storm, I adjusted my camera 

 with the intention of securing a photograph of the lightning flash, should 

 another vivid one occur, and standing with my apparatus ready, at the 

 entrance of the tent, I waited for my opportunity. It soon came ; a flash 

 so intense as to be actually blinding was seen, and in an instant I pressed 

 the bulb, and later, when the plate was developed, I found that I had 

 secured the flash in the utmost perfection. 



"Well, Samuels," exclaimed the Judge, "that is a little out of the 

 usual run of photography. I have seen many attempts at photographing 

 clouds, but never an effort at photographing lightning." 



" Yes," I replied," a good many enthusiasts are after lightning flashes, 

 but they rarely get a good clean one." 



Such a heavy rain as fell that night, seldom occurs. With pipes alight, 

 we listened to the downpour on our canvas roof, and passed the hours in 

 discussing the various things which go to make up the conversation of 

 sportsmen in the woods. 



"This storm will give those little sandpipers a drenching," said the 

 Judge ; " they were not half feathered, and will probably have a hard time 

 of it." 



" No, Judge," I responded, " the old ones will secure a safe shelter for 

 them. I venture to say they are as dry as we are." 



" In speaking of the spotted and solitary sandpipers, this afternoon," 

 said the Doctor, "you said they were among the few species of waders 

 that breed south of the Arctic regions ; there are others that breed in New 

 England." 



"Oh, yes," I replied, "there are several well-known species which rear 

 their young in our section, although, of course, they are few when com- 

 pared with the whole number. For example, the willet, or the semi-pal- 

 mated tattler, as it is sometimes called, the bird formerly named by orni- 

 thologists the Totanus semipahnatus, but is now known as the Symphemia 

 semipalmata. It breeds in New England, usually in the shore marshes, 

 but its nest has been found in a rye-field twenty miles or more inland. 

 If a person finds the nest the bird rises into the air, flying around the 

 intruder, and uttering its shrill cry of pill-willct, p///-wi//ef, -which maybe 

 heard at the distance of a half a mile or more. It is a bird of rapid and 

 graceful flight ; it is usually found about the salt-water marshes, and on the 

 shoals and bars of bays and inlets, and is frequently seen wading deep in 

 the water, and as its partially palmated foot indicates, it is a good 

 swimmer. 



" It is a shy, suspicious bird, and rarely allows the sportsman to 



