182 LITTLE SANDPIPER. 
would have done on finding that their grog had been stopped. For 
my part, I felt as happy as when, on the same coast, I for the first 
time saw the nest and eggs of the Black-crowned Warbler, of which 
you haye read an account in the second volume of this work. Four 
beautiful eggs, larger than I had expected to see produced by birds 
of so small a size, lay fairly beneath my eye as I knelt over them 
for several minutes in perfect ecstasy. The nest had been formed 
first, apparently, by the patting of the little creature’s feet on the 
crisp moss, and in the slight hollow thus produced were laid a few 
blades of slender dry grass bent in a circular manner, the internal dia- 
meter of the nest being two inches and a half, and its depth an inch 
and a quarter. The eggs, which were in shape just like those of the 
Spotted Sandpiper, Totanus macularius, measured seven and a half 
eighths of an inch in length, and three-fourths of an inch in breadth. 
Their ground colour was a rich cream-yellow tint, blotched and dotted 
with very dark umber, the markings larger and more numerous toward 
the broad end. They were placed with their pointed ends together, 
and were quite fresh. The nest lay under the lea.of a small rock, ex- 
posed to all the heat the sun can afford in that country. No sooner had 
the little creatures felt assured that I had discovered their treasure, 
than they manifested a great increase of sorrow, flew from the top of 
one crag to another in quick succession, and emitted notes resembling 
the syllables peep, peet, which were by no means agreeable to my feel- 
ings, for I was truly sorry to rob them of their eggs, although im- 
pelled to do so by the love of science, which affords a convenient excuse 
for even worse acts. i 
This pair, however, would seem to have been late in depositing 
their eggs, for on the 4th of August my party and myself saw young 
birds almost as large as their parents, and agreeing in almost every 
point with the descriptions given of Tringa Temmincku. Many small 
flocks of these birds, consisting of old and young, were already depart- 
ing from Labrador, and were seen on all our excursions. On the 11th 
of August, we also found adult and young in great numbers. But not 
a single newly hatched individual of this species could I procure, while 
the young of the Ring Plover were very abundant. 
I was surprised, whilst rambling along the shores of the Raritan 
River, between New Jersey and New York, to find a great number of 
Little Sandpipers, on the 29th of July 1832, leading me to believe that 
