THE HOME OF THE SPOTTED SAND-PIPER. 41 



of this Nile ; the mill and bridge are the towns of its world ; the meadow 

 and pasture, the plains and highlands by which it passes ; it has islands 

 and peninsulas and isthmuses, capes, promontories, and reefs. The 

 teacher of the district school at the cross-roads can plant a firmer lesson 

 in the restless young minds under her charge by an afternoon's stroll 

 along this stream than by a month's study of atlas and definition. 



Thither goes the ornithologist on sweet June mornings, when the 

 spring torrent has subsided, and the dog-wood is launching its large pet- 

 als on the brook. The long-roll of the kingfisher summons him, and he 

 finds a gay company of birds hardly to be met with elsewhere. Two 

 of these are especially characteristic of such a locality, and a walk in early 

 summer will be sure to find them. 



Opposite a certain crescentic bluff, where the bank-swallows breed in 

 great numbers, and an occasional kingfisher is to be seen, lies a broad, 

 gravelly beach, which, during spring freshets, is inundated, as is shown 

 by the muddy drift-wood entangled in the lower branches of the willows 

 and alders. Whenever I come here my ears are saluted with a soft lit- 

 tle bird-squeal — -pee-weet, weet, weet — and a tiny object scuds off on swift, 

 slender feet ; or gray wings, trailing downward from its body as though 

 broken, carry it away in a circuitous sweep, just skimming the surface 

 of the water. This can be only 



THE SPOTTED SAND-FIPEE. 



It is an independent little fellow, scuttling in its ridiculous way from 

 the tropics to the arctic zone and back every year. 



Unlike most of its allies, this species is not confined to the sea-shore, 

 nor does it congregate in flocks, but spreads all over the country, follow- 

 ing those natural paths — the rivers — until adventurous ones reach even 

 Alaska and Labrador, scale the sides of the Rocky Mountains, and make 

 their nests in the fens far north of Lake Superior. Meanwhile, thou- 

 sands less energetic, or more economical of time and strength, stay with 

 us in every State, and in the southern portions of the Union succeed in 

 raising two families before warned by comrades returning from the North 

 that winter is at their heels. 



It breeds as plentifully in the depths of the Maine forests as on the 

 low, sandy islands, or in the marshes by our sea-coast. The female, about 

 the first week in April, scratches a hollow in the sandy earth by some 

 pond, or sometimes in a corn-field or orchard, lining it with a few pieces 

 of straw or moss, and lays four eggs, which she adjusts, with their small 

 ends together, in the middle of the nest ; these eggs are usually abruptly 



