224 



Bird -Lore 



was three- 

 away, and 



ends toward the center. It was about one hundred and thirty feet from the 

 water, and the bird left when I came within sixty feet. She ran quietly along 

 in the ruts for some distance, then flew to the pool. I sat on a rock fifty feet 

 from the nest, and in five or ten minutes she returned and went on again. 

 Two days later I paid another visit and found the bird on. She came off, as 

 before, when we were within a few feet, skulked through the furrows, and flew. 

 Two days later one egg was missing, and my companion took a photograph of 

 the nest with the remaining three eggs. On May 25 I found that the field had 

 been ploughed again or harrowed, the nest was almost obliterated, and there 



was no sign of eggs. 



The second nest 

 quarters of a mile 

 seemed more dangerously placed 

 than the first. I discovered it 

 June 14, while riding by in a car- 

 riage. A Sandpiper flew up from 

 the grass twelve feet from the road 

 and about one hundred feet from 

 a pond. I alighted and found the 

 nest, with four eggs, just where 

 the bird flew up. It was placed in 

 the grass and clover, and was 

 made of rather finer material than 

 the other nest. As in the first one, 

 the eggs were placed with the 

 smaller ends pointing inward. 

 When I went to it the next day, 

 I approached within ten feet be- 

 fore the bird flew, stopping a 

 moment in the road nearby. On 

 June 23 my friend photographed 

 the nest. A week later, when we 

 expected to find a happy family, 

 there were only three cold eggs 

 and a broken shell filled with 

 ants. The field had been mowed 

 and the protecting grass and clover 

 cut away. 



It would seem that proximity 

 to civilization does not help the Sandpiper in raising its young. The sea- 

 beaches and wilder inland ponds would probably provide safer nesting- 

 sites. 



NEST AND EGGS OF SPOTTED 

 SANDPIPER 



