BIRDS OF THE SHORE AND MARSHES 219 



indulged in, interrupts many a meal and run along the 

 beach. A sudden jerking up or jetting of the tail as the 

 bird walks, gives it a most curious gait, all the more amus- 

 ing because the bird is so small and evidently so self- 

 satisfied. One rarely sees more than a pair of these sand- 

 pipers in a neighborhood which they somehow preempt, 

 except at the migrations, when families travel together; 

 but as two broods are generally raised in a summer, these 

 family parties are no mean sized flock. Startle a "teeter- 

 snipe" and with a sharp, sweet peet-weet, weet-weet, it flies 

 off swiftly on a curve, in a steady, low course, but with 

 none of the erratic zig-zags characteristic of a true snipe's 

 motions, and soon alights not far from where it set out. A 

 fence rail, a tree, or even the roofs of outbuildings on the 

 farm have been chosen as resting places. The peet-weets 

 skim above the waving grain inland, their pendent, pointed 

 wings beating steadily, and follow the same graceful curves 

 that mark their course above the sea. 



In the nesting season, which practically extends all 

 through the summer, this is a sand "lark" indeed. Soar- 

 ing upward, singing as he goes, in that angelic manner of 

 the true lark of England, the male pours out his happiness 

 in low, sweet peet-weets trilled rapidly and prolonged into a 

 song — cheerful, even ecstatic notes, without a trace of the 

 plaintive tone heard at other times. A good deal of music 

 passes back and forth from these birds awing. 



Fluffy Kttle chicks run from the creamy buff shells thickly 

 spotted and speckled with brown, as soon as hatched. 

 The nest, or a depression in the ground, lined with dry 

 grass, that answers every purpose, may be in a meadow or 

 orchard, but rarely far from water that attracts worms, 

 snails, and insects for the little family to feed on. This is 



