The Western Sandpiper 



Plovers. Often a company of these little tots, of whatever degree of mix- 

 ture, will attach itself to some larger wader, a Knot or a Willet or a Long- 

 billed Dowitcher, and the amiable giant, so adopted, is obeyed implicitly 

 in subsequent evolutions. 



No better opportunity is afforded to study and speculate upon the 

 mystery of flock movement than in the case of these gentle peeps. In 

 flock flight they weave and twist about, now flashing in the sunlight, now 

 darkening to invisibility, charge and recharge, feint and flee, all as a single 

 bird. And because they keep up a dainty chattering, like a fairy rattle-box, 

 one cannot decide whose voice in the babel has authority. Upon alight- 

 ing, they first pause in absolute silence, absurd little Platos, done in plaster 

 and sown broadcast over the sandscape. This, that they may note 

 whether their coming may have provoked hostile notice. Reassured upon 

 this point, they become animated, and begin to patter and pick and probe 

 and peep, as though there were nothing else in life. There is something 

 so detached about their happy chatter, that the birdman feels like an 

 uninvited cow whose hulking presence the banqueting fairies are politely 

 minded to ignore. The flock moves slowly forward and successive platoons 

 rising from the devastated rear pass over their fellows to take turns at the 



1248 



THE BUSY HOUR 



