448 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



The Least Sandpiper or " Peep " is so well known on 

 our shores that any description is almost superfluous. It 

 makes its appearance early in May, in small parties of 

 five or six, and quickly proceeds to the most northern 

 sections of the continent, where it breeds, and then im- 

 mediately returns to our shores, where it remains until 

 early in October, when it passes on to the South. Au- 

 dubon, in describing its breeding habits, says, " That 

 this species is naturally disposed to seek alpine sections 

 of the country for the purpose of reproduction, I obtained 

 abundant proof whilst in Labrador, where I found it plen- 

 tiful, and breeding on the moss-clad crests of the highest 

 rocks, within short distances of the sea." On finding the 

 nest, he says, — 



" Four beautiful eggs, larger than I had expected to see pro- 

 duced by birds of so small a size, lay fairly beneath my eye, as I 

 knelt over them for several minutes in perfect ecstasy. The nest 

 had been formed first, apparently, by the patting of the little 

 creatures' feet on the crisp moss, and in the slight hollow thus 

 produced were laid a few blades of slender, dry grass, bent in a 

 circular manner; the internal diameter of the nest being two 

 inches and a half, and its depth an inch and a quarter. The eggs, 

 which were in shape just like those of the Spotted Sandpiper, T. 

 macvlarius, measured seven and a half eighths of an inch in length, 

 and three-fourths of an inch in breadth. Their ground-color was a 

 rich cream-yellow tint, blotched and dotted with very dark umber, 

 the markings larger and more numerous toward the broad end. 

 They were placed with their broad ends together, and were quite 

 fresh. The nest lay under the lee of a small rock, exposed to all 

 the heat the sun can afford in that country." 



It is during the latter part of August and the greater 

 part of September that this species is most abundant in 

 New England, where it generally confines itself to the sea- 

 coast, but sometimes penetrates to the large tracts of water 

 in the interior, gleaning there its food of small shell-fish, 

 crustaceans, and insects in the pools of water and on the 



