Bird- Lore 



Mr. Sandpiper was now busy mailing sliort song-flights at an elevation of 

 about 50 feet above and near the nest. His song seemed to come from every 



direction, and this illusion was 

 difficult to account for even 

 by the unusual location of the 

 songster. To human ears it 

 sounded like the mellow trill of 

 a katydid, but to Mrs. Sand- 

 piper he was probably an avian 

 Caruso. These artistic endeav- 

 ors were often interrupted by 

 the appearance of some, perhaps 

 innocent, intruding Sandpiper, 

 always a cause for combat, when 

 the tenor love-notes gave way 

 to baritone war-cries. 

 As overbearing as the pugnacious male Sandpiper was to all strangers, he 

 was always a very considerate and wilHng helper to his brooding mate. During 

 the cooler morning hours, from 2 until 4 o'clock, he often relieved her of the 

 household duties and kept the eggs warm while she was away getting her break- 

 fast along the edge of a lagoon some 200 yards distant. He was always very 

 shy, and if visited by the human chronicler of his home-life would trot anxiously 

 about, not returning to the nest as long as the intruder remained in the neigh- 

 borhood. About noontide, on bright cloudless days, the eggs were often left 

 to take care of themselves for a couple of hours while the parents fed slowly 

 along the edge of some freshwater pond or basked in the sun. The eggs blended 

 so well with the general brown tone of the tundra that they were indis- 



THE FEMALE ON THE NEST ALWAYS 

 FACED THE CAMERA 



SHE TURNED THE EGGS OVER WITH HER BILL 



