THE FLIGHT OF SANDPIPERS 75 

 lakes in this country, shows to advantage the 

 characteristic flight of the sandpiper tribe. 

 This speciahty of flight is well adapted to birds 

 whose habit it is to skim lightly over the 

 surface of the water, or equally over the face 

 of level sand-tracts. This bird permits of close 

 inspection when nesting, and the chief point 

 to note in regard to its flight is the very 

 short up-and-down movement of the wings, 

 the scope of action being less than in any other 

 genus. It would seem that the down-stroke 

 is suddenly checked when on a level with the 

 body of the bird, which permits of the sand- 

 piper flying close to the surface without, at 

 the same time, touching the water with the 

 tips of its wings. The space between the bird's 

 breast and the water is probably less than an 

 inch when thus " flitting " from shore to shore, 

 for though the tips of the wings never actually 

 touch the water, Uttle puffs of air in the wake 

 of the bird may be seen ruffling the surface 

 when the water is smooth. 



This is a very graceful flight, characteristic 

 of all the sandpipers, but not in the least calcu- 

 lated for " scooping," because, as I have said, 

 the wing-beat is too short to allow of any 

 secondary movement. 



Now that we have considered some of the 

 different forms of flight, we shall examine 



