272 Bird - Lore 



self-taken, of this tribe. It can be done, though, and these little Sandpipers 

 make very pretty subjects. One can attract them to a blind with decoys. I 

 have even had them fly close to Duck decoys, and secured good pictures of 

 them thus, though it probably was mere idle curiosity that drew them. The 

 best chances I ever found to photograph these and other shore-birds, aside 

 from at nesting-time, was on the spring migration, among the Florida Keys, 

 where the red mangrove grows right down to the water's edge, close to the sand- 

 bars. In winter and spring they are numerous in such places, and all I had to 

 do was to squat quietly and blaze away with my harmless weapon as the 

 unsuspecting birds ran by me, fed, or rested. 



These little nymphs are gleaners, rather than scavengers. Their food, 

 of course, is of very small prey — larvae, worms, minute shell-fish, insects, 

 and the like — which they pick up on shore or flat, or probe for deeper down. 

 Though we may not be able to assign any definite economic value to these 

 species in dollars and cents, they have a value none the less real and great. 

 Celia Thaxter found genuine happiness with "One httle Sandpiper and I!"— 

 and so has many another. They have afforded me, hundreds of times, most 

 exquisite delight, and I know that they are worth while. Through wisely- 

 directed effort, may their numbers be greatly increased. 



