284 Bird - Lore 



The third week in June I spent in Pike County, Pennsylvania, and while 

 there discovered the other colony of Sandpipers mentioned. It was located on 

 what was once the bottom of a lumberman's 'splash dam pond'. The water had 

 been drawn off early in the spring, leaving the ground littered with dead trees, 

 sticks, and other refuse. Here the Sandpipers made no pretense of nest-build- 

 ing, simply placing their eggs in a hollow among the sticks. During my short 

 stay I located three famihes in different stages of development, the young of 

 one family being almost ready to fly. I think that there were at least a dozen 

 pairs of birds occupying this locality, but lack of time prevented me from any 

 very careful search for nests. Strange to say, the young birds seemed to be 

 just as far advanced as the young of the Camden colony, although the season 

 is much later (about two weeks) in the mountains. 



Two localities could hardly present a wider difference in appearance. 

 Over one blows the breath of the city, laden with smoke and nauseating odors 

 from neighboring chemical plants; over the other blows the breath of the 

 hills, permeated with the ozone and the fragrance of the woods. This inter- 

 esting little Sandpiper, however, seems to be content whether he is teetering 

 about on the banks of a sluggish drainage-ditch or flitting from stone to 

 stone in the bed of a rushing mountain stream. A safe breeding-place and 

 plentiful food-supply are the important factors in his choice of a nesting-site. 



