418 The Water-fowl Family 



in. When startled, teetering the body as if to 

 gaze at the intruder from all points of view, then 

 darting through the air on graceful flight, they 

 utter as they start a high-pitched, mournful note, 

 and pass on over the tree-tops to some other pool, 

 where no disturber interferes with their affairs. 

 Sometimes on these ponds in the woods we come 

 across a solitary sandpiper, quietly walking over 

 the soft mud, unconscious of danger; silent and 

 still as if affected by the solitude of the place, yet 

 in the jaunty manner of its flight, changing its 

 character and giving expression to the happiness 

 of life. In the spring of the year, by early April, 

 we find them in their solitary resorts tarrying 

 awhile, then disappearing to breed and raise their 

 young, no one knows where. 



The young birds appear in September and at 

 this time rarely straggle out on the marshes and 

 flats in company of other shore-birds. 



The solitary sandpiper undoubtedly breeds as 

 far south as our northern boundary, and it is a 

 strange fact there are no more satisfactory rec- 

 ords of its nesting. The instance of a single egg, 

 found at Lake Bombazine, Vermont, by Jenness 

 Richardson, is questioned. This egg was seen by 

 Mr. C. A. Sheldon, who was with Mr. Richardson 

 at the time, and in his opinion the identification 

 is doubtful. 



At its breeding-grounds this bird has a song 



