2l6 SCOLOPACID^ : SNIPE, ETC. 



we are actually bending over her treasures, and decep- 

 tion would be in vain ; her grief is too great to be 

 witnessed unmoved, still less portrayed ; nor can we, 

 deaf to her beseeching, change it into despair. We have 

 seen and admired the home — there is no excuse for 

 making it desolate ; we have not so much as touched 

 one of the precious eggs, and will leave them to her re- 

 newed and patient care. 



"This is one verse in the little Sand-bird's life, with 

 the wolf at the door of what would seem the perfect 

 security of an humble home. Now later in the season, 

 when the young birds are grown strong of wing, family 

 joins family, and the gathering goes to the sea-beach. 

 Stretches of sand, or pebbly shingle, or weed-loaded 

 rocks, or muddy flats bestrewn with wrack, invite, and 

 are visited in turn ; and each yields abundant sustenance. 

 The unsuspecting birds ramble and play heedlessly 

 in the very front of man, unmindful of, because un- 

 knowing, danger; they have a sad lesson to learn 

 the coming winter, when they are tormented without 

 stint, and a part of their number slaughtered in more 

 civilized countries for mere sport, or for the morsel 

 of food their bodies may afford. Blasts fiercer than they 

 ever knew before come out of the north ; autumn is 

 upon them, and they must not wait. Flocks rise on 

 wing, and it is not long before the beaches and the 

 marshes of the States are thronged." (Birds Northwest, 

 1874, p. 483.) 



