The Sanderling 



nimble, these birds think nothing of quitting a locality upon the slightest 

 suggestion of danger up-shore. And for the same reason they do not 

 hesitate to re-establish themselves at a few rods' remove. On the other 

 hand, a person seated quietly on the sand, say thirty feet from the water's 

 edge, may see a company of rather conscious pipers approaching up wind. 

 The picking is good. It would be too bad not to finish the row. There 

 are hesitations, huddlings, cautions, feints, and miniature retreats. They 

 are as conscious as schoolboys about to say a piece. Finally, some brave 

 Roderick makes a dash and goes scudding past. Others follow, and the 

 ordeal is done without the humiliation of flight. 



In observing a large flock which had been several times disturbed, I 

 noted that immediately upon alighting at the water's edge they dispatched 

 an attacking force up the beach slope to deploy as skirmishers over the 

 dry, level sands at the top. When threatened, this vanguard invariably 

 reassembled and pattered, or fled, down the slope to rejoin the reserves 

 before taking final flight. This was done so quickly and so methodically 

 as to argue the utmost familiarity of usage. 



Although Sanderlings rarely visit the lagoons or mudflats, they spend 

 a good deal of time resting in the upper sands; or after an elaborate toilet 

 beside some tidal pool, they foregather with the gulls and take one-legged 

 snoozes in serene content. 



A single leg serves many birds as a prop during the hours of slumber, 

 but it has remained for the Sanderling to perfect hopping as a means of 

 locomotion. One's sympathies are aroused at first upon seeing one poor 

 little piper making prodigious hops in the effort to keep up with the re- 

 treating wave — and doing very well at it too — but when he sees a dozen 



Taken in Santa Barbara 

 Photo by the Author 



A LITTLE ASSISTANCE FROM THE LIFTED WING' 



birds at once running about on one leg, he realizes that it is just a boyish 

 prank. It's more fun than stilts, apparently, and never a broken nose 

 to pay for it. 



1257 



