FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



thought or two outside the range of his specialty) 

 when all at once sharp outcries were heard just 

 in front, and the next moment two sharp-winged 

 birds wheeled round a rock and disappeared. My 

 dreamy mood was gone in a twinkling. These 

 birds were almost certainly strangers ; and what 

 were they ? 



I followed them, practising all stealth, and by 

 and by, to my delight, behold, one of them stood 

 directly before me on the top of a rock, preening 

 its feathers, in full view and the best of light — 

 a sandpiper, with something of the look and 

 action of both the spotted and the solitary ; new, 

 beyond question, and requiring to be scrutinized 

 in every feather. Sometimes it nodded in the 

 manner of a plover; oftener it teetered like a 

 spotted sandpiper ; while its legs were of a color 

 almost lively enough — but shading too much 

 to olive — for the bird that we know as " yellow- 

 legs." 



A long while it posed there, much of the time 

 on one leg, the light favoring me so that every 

 little while I could see its eye turn white as the 

 nictitating membrane — so I believe it is called — 

 was drawn over it. Then it flew a short distance 

 (this was what I was waiting for), and I made 

 sure that there were no white markings on wings 

 or tail, a point of almost decisive importance, as 

 132 



