SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 615 



that it has been killed in Germany and on the banks of the 

 Rhine, but not in Holland. Messrs. Meyer and Wolf, 

 and M. Brehm include it in their Birds of Germany. 



The Spotted Sandpiper is a common bird in the United 

 States,* where, however, it is only a summer visiter, going 

 southward in October. During the breeding season it in- 

 habits the banks of rivers and lakes, where its actions, 

 habits and food, are observed to accord so closely with those 

 of our Common Sandpiper in this country, as to make quo- 

 tation from American authorities unnecessary. One extract 

 from Mr. Audubon's Ornithological Biography I hope to be 

 excused from copying, because it refers to a power possessed 

 by birds, which has been doubted ; that of being able to 

 move their eggs when danger threatens. " My esteemed 

 friend Thomas Macculloch of Pictou, Nova Scotia, having 

 transmitted to me a curious account of the attachment of 

 one of these birds to her eggs, I here insert it with plea- 

 sure. Being on an excursion to the Hardwood Heights, 

 which rise to the west of Pictou, my attention was at- 

 tracted by the warble of a little bird, which appeared to 

 me entirely new, and which proceeded from a small thicket 

 a short way off. Whilst crossing an intervening meadow, 

 I accidentally raised a Spotted Sandpiper from its nest, and 

 having marked the spot I hastened forwards ; but the shyness 

 of the object of my pursuit rendered all my efforts unavail- 

 ing, and returning to the nest I had just left, I expected to 

 find it still unoccupied ; but the Sandpiper had again re- 

 sumed her place, and left it with great reluctance on my 

 near approach. The nest contained four eggs, which I 

 determined to remove on my return at night, and for the 

 purpose of preventing the bird sitting again upon them, I 



* Mr. Audubon says this species has a very extensive range; from Labrador 

 even to Texas. 



