BY INLAND WATERS 115 



and begins to fly as if in great terror, with its long 

 legs dangling comically. Not till it is some dis- 

 tance away does it get into the calm, measured, 

 wing-beat of its true locomotion. We boys used 

 to flush bitterns for the sheer joy of seeing their 

 legs dangle, as we supposed, though I am not sure 

 but we enjoyed also the later, splendid flight; cer- 

 tainly, in my memory, it is the picture of the re- 

 ceding bird which comes back to me, its wings 

 rising and falling with rhythmic pulse against the 

 solemn wall of pines which stood on the opposite 

 bank of the Hundred Acre meadows, or against a 

 quiet sunset sky over the glassy waters of Martin's 

 pond. Unfortunately, here in the Berkshires, the 

 bitterns seem never to have been common, and 

 now at best we but see them at migration time. 

 Occasionally one is said to nest here, but I have 

 never encountered a case. They nest in great num- 

 bers in southern Rhode Island. 



Every country boy knows the spotted sandpiper, 

 which lie probably calls a " tip-up," or "teeter- 

 tail." I can remember when this delightfully odd 

 and beneficent little bird was considered a "game- 

 bird" and ruthlessly shot. Perhaps some people 

 still so regard it, though it seems incredible in light 

 of what we now know concerning the usefulness to 

 man of the insect-eating birds. Even the quail 

 can probably save far more food by protecting the 

 farmer's crop than his little body can supply on a 

 table. The spotted sandpiper is the commonest 

 of his species in the northeastern United States, 

 and as he nimbly bobs along on the little sand mar- 

 gin of a stream or pond, tipping his tail restlessly up 



