The Birds and Poets 175 



pian, and Forster's are by careless observers some- 

 times confused with the gulls on the Great Lakes 

 because of their size and their similar white and 

 gray plumage. Terns may be easily distinguished 

 from gulls by the position of their bills, which are 

 always pointed downward, while flying, like a 

 huge mosquito, whereas the bill of the gull is 

 always pointed straight ahead in the plane of its 

 body. 



Another very common little migrant among the 

 shore birds, which may be seen in small flocks of 

 four to ten running along the sandy beach of Lake 

 Michigan or any of the Great Lakes in September 

 and October is the sanderling, familiarly called 

 "sand-snipe," by the natives along shore. It 

 is a small, snipe-shaped bird, measuring about an 

 inch longer than the common spotted sandpiper, 

 with rather long straight black bill which it pokes 

 into the soft wet sand in search of aquatic insects. 

 Its feet and legs are black and its plumage gen- 

 erally dull black and white. These little birds, 

 which are quite tame, run rapidly along the water's 

 edge ahead of anyone walking on the sand, until 

 they have moved up the beach at a safe distance 

 of thirty or forty feet, when they stop and feed 

 until one again approaches to within fifteen or 

 twenty feet of them, when they run on again. 

 Repeating this practice many times, they seem 

 loath to give up their feeding for flight. Their 

 long slender legs are stiff and set wide apart, and 

 when the birds are running and the stiff little legs 



