The Western Sandpiper 



But do not envy the bird-photographer overmuch. He, too, has paid 

 a price. If he has seemed to fellowship with the birds, it was only that he 

 might get their images; and in getting these he has not seldom missed the 

 birds themselves. The technique of photography, even snap-shottery, is 

 quite exacting. One cannot both study and photograph birds at the same 

 time. The camerist may score a success, and come away after an exciting 

 brush with a rare species, flushed with triumph, yet knowing little of the 

 bird's characteristic behavior and psychology. It is for your sake that he 

 has wrought, and sacrificed mayhap his very opportunity to acquire that 

 intimate knowledge of character which only the notebook may record. It 

 is thus, I fear, with the Western Sandpiper. He is as common as mud, and 

 as fascinating as a kitten ; but, alas, he is photographically irresistible. We 

 have forty-five negatives of the Western Sandpiper — and a flat notebook. 



In these humiliating circumstances (and because we really cannot be 

 expected to follow our guests in person to Alaska) we shall again have 

 recourse to the treasury of that doughty observer, Mr. E. W. Nelson, of St. 

 Michaels: "The warm days toward the close of May cause the brown 

 slopes and flats to assume a shade of green, and among the pretty bird- 

 romances going on under our eyes none is more charming than the court- 

 ship of this delicate Sandpiper. They have forsaken the borders of icy 

 pools, and, in twos and threes, are found scattered over the tundra, show- 

 ing a preference for small dry knolls and the drier tussock-covered parts 

 of the country in the vicinity of damp spots and small ponds. Here the 

 gentle birds may be seen at all times tripping daintily over the moss or in 

 and out among the tufts of grass, conversing with each other in low, pleas- 

 ant, twittering notes, and never showing any sign of the wrangling so 

 frequent with their kind at this season. The female modestly avoids the 

 male as he pays his homage, running back and forth before her as though 

 anxious to exhibit his tiny form to the best advantage. At times his heart 

 beats high with pride and he trails his wings, elevates and partly spreads 

 his tail, and struts in front of his lady fair in all the pompous vanity of a 

 pygmy turkey-cock; or his blood courses in a fiery stream until, filled with 

 ecstatic joy, the sanguine lover springs from earth, and rising upon vibrat- 

 ing wings, some ten or fifteen yards, he poises, hovering in the same posi- 

 tion, while he pours forth a rapid, uniform series of somewhat musical 

 trills, which vary in strength as they gradually rise and fall, producing 

 pleasant cadences. The wings of the songster meanwhile vibrate with 

 such rapid motion that they appear to keep time with the rapidly trilling 

 notes, which can only be likened to the running down of a small spring 

 and may be represented by the syllables tzr-r-e-e-e, zr-e-e-e, zr-e-e-e, in a 

 fine high-pitched tone with an impetus at each 'z.' This part of the song 

 ended, the bird raises its wings above its back, thus forming a V, and 



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