loo SPOTTED SANDPIPERS 



ingly over the sand and turning back frequently with 

 frightened stare. Continued nesting from the end of 

 May to the first week of July suggests the possibility 

 of a second brood. As soon as the young are hatched 

 they leave the nest and run over the sand, little 

 helpless balls of grey down. But their wing quills 

 grow rapidly, and soon the careful mother is free 

 for her southward journey. When night makes the 

 more subdued sounds of the marsh audible the Sora 

 Rail cackles distinctly in the dense rushes, and the 

 whistle of the invisible Night-hawk reveals the active 

 life of the upper air. A subduing pause is broken 

 by the close, sharp, repeated note of the Spotted 

 Sandpiper, intolerant of intrusion even on the moon- 

 lit reaches of the sandy shore. 



