282 LITTLE SANDPIPER. 



necessity afterwards call for it, to guide you around the place until you have 

 discovered the nest which you are desirous of seeing. 



Through these means, on the 20th of July, 1833, I after some search found 

 the nest and eggs of this species. The birds flew, to use the words of my 

 Journal, like Partridges, and not like Tringas. I marked them well, for 

 both the female and the male flew from near the nest, and having left my 

 fisher's hat where I then stood, I walked carefully over the moss hither and 

 thither, until at last I came upon the spot. My pleasure would have been 

 greatly augmented had any of my young companions been near; but the 

 sailors who had rowed me to the foot of the rocks exhibited little more de- 

 light than they would have done on finding that their grog had been stopped. 

 For my part, I felt as happy as when, on the same coast, I for the first time 

 saw the nest and eggs of the Black-crowned Warbler. Four beautiful eggs, 

 larger than I had expected to see produced by birds of so small a size, lay 

 fairly beneath my eye as I knelt over them for several minutes in perfect 

 ecstasy. The nest had been formed first, apparently, by the patting of the 

 little creature's feet on the crisp moss, and in the slight hollow thus produced 

 were laid a few blades of slender dry grass, bent in a circular manner, the 

 internal diameter of the nest being two inches and a half, and its depth an 

 inch and a quarter. The eggs, which were in shape just like those of the 

 Spotted Sandpiper, Tot anus macularius, measured seven and a half eighths 

 of an inch in length, and three-fourths of an inch in breadth. Their ground 

 colour was a rich cream-yellow tint, blotched and dotted with very dark 

 umber, the markings larger and more numerous toward the broad end. They 

 were placed with their pointed ends together, and were quite fresh. The 

 nest lay under the lee of a small rock, exposed to all the heat the sun can 

 afford in that country. No sooner had the little creatures felt assured that I 

 had discovered their treasure, than they manifested a great increase of sor- 

 row, flew from the top of one crag to another in quick succession, and emit- 

 ted notes resembling the s} 7 llables peep, peet, which were by no means agree- 

 able to my feelings, for I was truly sorry to rob them of their eggs, although 

 impelled to do so by the love of science, which affords a convenient excuse 

 for even worse acts. 



This pair, however, would seem to have been late in depositing their eggs, 

 for on the 4th of August my party and myself saw young birds almost as 

 large as their parents, and agreeing in almost every point with the descrip- 

 tions given of Tringa Temminckii. Many small flocks of these birds," 

 consisting of old and young, were already departing from Labrador, and were 

 seen on all our excursions. On the 11th of August, we also found adult and 

 young in great numbers. But not a single newly hatched individual of this 



