Sand'pipers. 329 



CHAPTER XX.- 



^yILDFOWL OF THE LAKE .SEA BIKDS DRIFT WOOD 



FORCES OF NATURE AT WORK WAVES — EVAP- 

 ORATION AN EAOLE FROST AND SNOW EF- 

 FECT ON BIRDS AND ANIMALS WATER-MEAD- 

 OWS SHOOTING STARS PHOSPHORESCENCE 



WATERSPOUT NOISES *■ IN THE AIR.' 



The ' summer snipe,' or sandpiper, comes to the 

 lake regularly year after year, and remains during 

 the warm months. About a dozen visit the shallow 

 sandy reaches running along the edge of the water, 

 when disturbed flying olf just above the surface with 

 a plaintive piping cry. They describe a semicircle, 

 and come back to the shore a hundred 3'ards farther 

 on ; and will do this as many times as you like to 

 put them up. Sometimes the}' feed in little parties 

 of two or three : sometimes alone. No other place for 

 some distance is visited by the sandpiper : none of 

 the ponds or brooks ; onl}' the lake. 



In summer but a fevv^ species of birds remain on 

 this piece of water. Only two or three wild ducks 

 stay to breed : their nests are not found on the mere 

 itself, but in the ponds adjacent. One small pond 

 fed by the lake and communicating with it — dug 

 where the muddy shore would otherwise prevent 

 cattle approaching the shallow water — a quiet spot 



