I I 8 BY THE SEA. 



bit by bit into the water, a flock of spotted sand- 

 pipers are running hither and thither, turning 

 their heads this way and that, and making little 

 tacks in pursuing the nimble fleas and shrimps 

 that have escaped from the tangled fronds. 

 There is no lack of food here, yet these little 

 waders, strange as it may appear, have quick, 

 fiery tempers, and often quarrel around the well- 

 spread table. It is one of the oddest sights in 

 the world to see the sandpipers fight. They 

 spread their short tails and stretch up their necks, 

 and turn their heads sideways like turkeys, then 

 bow and courtesy to each other for a long time. 

 If at length one attempts to move off, its antago- 

 nist suddenly dives at it with lifted wings and 

 wide-open beak. At times a quarrelsome snipe 

 seems to glide along toward some imagined 

 offender, with tail tipped up and its finely-streaked 

 breast grazing the sea-weed. After a brief clash 

 of bills and wings both fall to watching each other 

 as before, un^l one, tired of the affair, creeps 

 stealthily away, like a cat. Although they are 

 crotchety and ill-tempered while feeding, they are 

 perfectly harmonious and orderly in flight. At a 

 signal given by the leader, the flock rises up and 

 moves through the air as one bird. How alert 

 and attentive each one must be to the movements 

 or the bugle call of their chief, as they together 

 change their course; now wheeling and counter- 



