6o Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



on Saturday afternoons, and on Sundays I haunted the shores of 

 Wolfe's Pond. The result was that by the middle of August a 

 passable series of spotted sandpiper photographs had been se- 

 cured, and it was planned to devote the remainder orf the season 

 to the migrants from the north. A week's vacation, from 

 August i6 to 23, had been secured, and most of it was to have 

 been spent in the barnyard. But alas, for the first three days 

 of that week, it will be recalled, there occurred the heaviest rain- 

 fall for the month of August that this section has known for 

 many years. The pond was flooded, its water line was com- 

 pletely changed, and its banks were in such a wretched condition 

 that photography was out of the question for many days. The 

 storm seemed to have had its effect on the migration as well; at 

 all events sandpipers were painfully scarce, and only one semipal- 

 mated was seen during the entire season. This individual, for 

 some reason, objected to passing in front of the blind, and the 

 best that could be done in his case was to stalk him with the 

 camera held in the hand. Three plates were secured in this 

 manner, but the image of the bird in each case was small and 

 unsatisfactory. 



One of the hired men in the dairy had for some time man- 

 ifested a considerable interest in my operations, and when I 

 arrived at the barnyard on Sunday mornings he would tell 

 whether any birds had been present during the week. Once he 

 said that a flock of " siven of thim yung ones " had been there 

 for a whole day but he had not seen them since. 



One day in early September I had the pleasure of taking Mr. 

 Clinton G. Abbott to the barnyard, and one spotted and two sol- 

 itary sandpipers were kind enough to appear on the scene. The 

 spotted walked- obligingly into place in front of each of our cam- 

 eras once, but after that he positively refused to be photographed. 

 A certain section of the cow yard back from the shore held out 

 strong inducements to him, and after trying at least a dozen times 

 to get him to return to the water line (and to our cameras) we 

 gave him up. 



