224 Bird -Lore 



bird on her nest. So I proceeded to hide the camera, with slag and weeds piled 

 over it. Connecting a thread with the shutter, I hid behind a thicket of bushes, 

 some fifteen yards off, to watch. In a few moments the little Sandpiper appeared 

 trotting about and jerking her body, I thought, even more nervously than usual. 

 She maneuvered around for some minutes till she felt assured that I had gone. 

 Then she walked straight to her nest, going within a foot or two or the camera, 

 which she failed to notice at all, so well was it concealed. She was not still for 

 an instant when she reached the eggs, but settled over them at once, bristling 

 her feathers and pushing her treasures with bill and wings this way and that, 

 till everything was arranged to her satisfaction. Then came my chance, and I 

 pulled the thread gently, taking her picture. Even the slight click of the shutter 

 sent her off in a hurry, but she came back several times for me, and then I left 

 her in peace. She safely brought off her young, and I afterwards met them 

 scurrying along the margin of the river. 



Like all baby Sandpipers, the little Spotted Sandpipers are quaint and 

 amusing. They look like tufts of cotton stuck up on tooth-picks, as they race 

 over the sand, attempting to escape when discovered. First, though, when the 

 stranger approaches, they squat flat on the shore, or hide in the grass. The 

 parent birds throw themselves on the ground before their supposed enemy, and 

 make believe wounded, so as to decoy him away from the young. At these 

 times, and at others, when they have young in the vicinity, they are apt, in 

 their solicitude, to alight in all sorts of places, even on trees or bushes, something 

 which they would not think of doing at any other time than in the nesting 

 season. In this habit they are not alone, for various other shore-birds do it, in 

 breeding time. 



The usual food of most species of this class is aquatic insect life of all sorts. 

 This is in part the diet of the Spotted Sandpiper. But as it is also a bird of field 

 and pasture, its range of insect food is very wide, including grasshoppers and 

 locusts. Probably almost anything in the insect line is grist for this hopper, 

 and thus it is a most useful bird. Indeed, some of our shore-birds are not given 

 credit enough for the good that they do to agriculture. Such 'shore-birds' as 

 the Killdeer, the Upland Plover, and Spotted Sandpiper really should be classed 

 with the Meadowlark and Bobolink, and not be put in the game class at all. 

 The fact that they are classed as shore-birds, or Limicolce, does not alter the 

 case. It is truly a shame the way that the shore-birds have been exterminated. 

 Such tiny species as the Least and Semipalmated species are too small for food, 

 and no self-respecting sportsman should shoot them. In fact, it is high time to 

 "let up" on all the shore-birds, and give them considerable, or, for a time, 

 absolute protection, lest species after species, now seldon seen, go the sad way 

 of the once abundant but now probably extinct Eskimo Curlew. These most 

 attractive forms of bird-life are among the great charms of shore and sea-coast, 

 and should continue for us and our posterity. May the time never come when 

 lovers of Nature shall look for them in vain. 



