THE SPOTTED SANDPIPER OR 

 "PEET-WEET" 



THOMAS NUTTALL 



THE Peet-weet is one of the most familiar and common 

 of all the New England marsh birds, arriving along our 

 river shores and low meadows about the beginning of May. 

 As soon as it arrives on the coast small roving flocks are seen 

 at various times of the day, coursing rapidly along the borders 

 of our tide-water streams. Flying swiftly and rather low, in cir- 

 cular sweeps along the meanders of the rock and river, and 

 occasionally crossing from side to side, they now present a 

 more sportive and cheerful mien than they assume at the close 

 of autumn when foraging becomes less certain. While flying 

 out in these wild circuits, agitated by feelings superior to those 

 of hunger and necessity, we hear the shores reecho the shrill 

 and rapid whistle of ^weet, 'weet, 'weet, 'weet, the note usually 

 closing with something like a warble as they approach their 

 companions on the strand. The cry then varies to peet, 'weet, 

 'weet, 'weet, beginning high and gradually declining into a some- 

 what plaintive tone. As the season advances our lively little 

 marine wanderers often trace the streams some distance into 

 the interior, resting usually in fresh meadows along the grass, 

 sometimes even near the house; and I have seen their eggs 

 laid in a strawberry bed where the young and old, pleased with 

 the protection afforded them, familiarly fed and probed the 

 margin of the adjoining duck-pond for their usual fare of worms 

 and insects. 



These birds have the very frequent habit of balancing or 

 wagging the tail, in which, even the young join as soon as 



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