86 In Touch with Nature, 



together than when alone. Neither wind nor 

 wave troubles them, their slender, sword-like wings 

 cutting the thin air and bearing them to distant 

 shores without a trace of languor. I have never 

 seen them wearied or morose, as many a land-bird 

 is apt to be. They touch the smooth sand so 

 lightly as to leave scarcely a footprint, or perch 

 upon a pebble so daintily that not thistle-down is 

 readier to respond to the passing breeze than 

 they to follow the whim that moves them. And, 

 withal, they sing ; a song of but two notes, it is 

 true, but who that has heard it above the plash of 

 waves, the sullen murmur of the pines, and the 

 sighing of the gathering storm in the lofty tree- 

 tops, but longs to hear it again, — a voice of sweet 

 content and child-like confidence ? 



Unlike the great majority of the family of 

 wading birds, to which it belongs, the spotted 

 sand-piper is equally at home in the uplands, where 

 the most commonplace of ponds and little way-side 

 pools content it; and even by these its pretty 

 nest is often placed. This, to be sure, is but a 

 shallow depression in sandy ground, with scarcely 

 enough grass to Une it thoroughly; still, it is 



