370 Wald Life in a Southern County. 
CHAPTER XxX. 
WILDFOWL OF THE LAKE—SEA BIRDS—DRIFT WOOD— 
FORCES OF NATURE AT WORK—WAVES—EVAPORATION 
—AN  EAGLE—FROST AND SNOW-—EFFECT ON BIRDS 
AND ANIMALS~-WATER-MEADOWS—SHOOTING STARS— 
PHOSPHORESCENCE—-WATERSPOUT—-NOISES ‘IN THE 
AIR.’ 
THE ‘summer snipe,’ or sandpiper, comes to the lake 
regularly year after year, and remains during the 
warm months. About a dozen visit the shallow 
sandy reaches running along the edge of the water, 
when disturbed flying off just above the surface with 
a plaintive piping cry. They describe a semicircle, 
and come back to the shore a hundred yards farther 
on; and will do this as many times as you like to put 
them up. Sometimes they feed in little parties of 
two or three: sometimes alone. No other place for 
some distance is visited by the sandpiper: none of 
the ponds or brooks ; only the lake. 
In summer but a few species of birds remain on 
this piece of water. Only two or three wild ducks 
stay to breed: their nests are not found on the mere 
itself, but in the ponds adjacent. One small pond 
