184 LITTLE SANDPIPER. 
turn to the same place in the next instant, to pursue their lowly occu- 
pation of scraping in the mud, whence, probably, originated the con- 
temptible appellation of Hwmility, by which they and some other small 
birds of similar habits have been distinguished. For the discovery 
of their food, their flexible and sensitive awl-like bills are thrust into 
the mire, marshy soil, or wet sand, in the manner of the Snipe and 
Woodcock, and in this way they discover and route from their hiding 
retreat, the larvee and soft worms which form a principal part of their 
fare. At other times, they also give chase to insects, and pursue 
their calling with amusing alacrity. When at length startled, or 
about to join the company they have left, a sharp, short, and mono. 
tonous whistle, like the word peet, or peep, is uttered, and they in- 
stantly take to wing, and course along with the company they had 
left. On seeing the larger marsh-birds feeding, as the Yellow-shanks 
and others, a whirling flock of the Peeps will descend among them, 
being generally allowed to feed in quiet; and at the approach of the 
sportsman, these little timorous rovers are ready to give the alarm. 
At first, a slender peep is heard, which is then followed by two or three 
others, and presently peep, pip, pip’ pp, murmurs in a lisping whistle 
through the quailing ranks, as they rise on the wing, and inevitably 
entice with them their larger but less watchful associates. Towards 
evening in fine weather, the marshes almost re-echo with the shrill but 
rather murmuring or lisping, subdued, and querulous call of peet, and 
then a repetition of pé-dee, pé-dée, deé-dée, which seems to be the col- 
lecting cry of the old birds calling together their brood, for, when as- 
sembled, the note changes into a confused murmur of peet, peet, attended 
by a short and suppressed whistle.” 
During my never-to-be-forgotten residence at Henderson, on the 
banks of the fair Ohio, I was in the habit of frequently seeing large 
flocks of these birds on the sandy shores of that river, during the 
autumnal months, and finding after a while that they could easily be 
driven into a partridge net, I laid one accordingly on several occa- 
sions, when, by using gentle means, I induced many dozens of these 
tiny, fat, and delicious birds to enter and become prisoners. I clipped 
the wings of many of them, and turned them loose in my garden, for 
the purpose of studying their habits in this sort of half-confined state ; 
but they were all soon destroyed by these most destructive pests, the 
Norway rats, which at that time infested all my premises. 
