The S^potted Sandpiper or "Peet-weet" 8i 



they are fledged. From the middle to the close of May the 

 pairs, receding from their companions, seek out a place for 

 the nest, which is always in a dry, open field of grass or grain, 

 sometimes in the seclusion and shade of a field of corn, but 

 most commonly in a dry pasture contiguous to the seashore. 

 In some of the solitary and small sea islands several pairs 

 sometimes make their nests near each other, in the immediate 

 vicinity of the noisy nurseries of the quailing Terns. 



On being flushed from her eggs the female goes off with- 

 out uttering any complaint, but when surprised with her young 

 she practices all sorts of dissimulation common to many other 

 birds, fluttering in the path as if badly wounded, and generally 

 proceeds in this way so far as to deceive a dog and cause it to 

 overlook her brood for whose protection these instinctive arts 

 are practiced. Nor are the young without their artful 

 instinct, for on hearing the reiterated cries of their parents 

 they scatter about and squatting still in the withered grass 

 almost exactly their color, it is with careful search very 

 difficult to discover them, so that in nine times out of ten they 

 would be overlooked. 



At a later period the shores and marshes resound with the 

 quick, clear and oft-repeated note of peet-weet, peet-weet, 

 followed up by a plaintive call of the young of peet, peet, 

 peet, peet. If this is not answered by the scattered brood a 

 reiterated 'weet, 'weet, \veet, 'wait, 'wait, 'wait is heard, the 

 voice dropping on the final syllables. The whole marsh and 

 shore at t.mes echoes to this loud, lively and sometimes solici- 

 tous call of the affectionate parents for their brood. The cry, 

 of course, is most frequent toward evening, when the little 

 family, separated by the necessity of scattering themselyes 

 over the ground in quest, of food, are desirous of again 

 reassembling to roost. 



