The dowitcher is a plump-bodied bird, with the bill more then twice 
as long as the head. In spring the under side of the body is largely cinna- 
mon, and in winter gray; the rump is largely white, and the tail barred black 
and white. The dowiteher is far less excitable than the yellowlegs, and may 
sometimes be closely approached. Dowitchers remain by preference in com- 
pact flocks and probe the mud industriously with their long bills. 
The pectoral sandpiper, or grassbird, 8 to 94 inches in length, is 
@& particular habitue of areas of short grass, soppy with water. The bill 
is a little longer than the head, the top of head streaked brownish black 
and light chestnut, the back feathers brownish black edged with paler, the 
upper breast pale brownish streaked with dusky, and the belly and rump 
white; tee middle tail feathers are darker than the cthers. A note given 
by the bird when flushed "kriek, kriek", has suggested one of its local 
names, eee It is seen on the Atlantic coast only in migration, 
The least sandpiper, or mud peep, 5 to 6 3/4 inches in length, fre- 
quents muddy beaches everywhere and is often seen in salt marshes. It - 
sometimes assembles in large flocks. There are several smoll sandpipers 
BP Very similar-appearance, but it is impracticable to Gale EEN BOE thern 
here, though a common one on mud, up ereenish yellow legs and a slightly 
down-curved bill, is likely to be the least sandpiper. Tt does not breed 
in Atlantic Goast States, but occurs oo all of them in migration and winters 
from North Carolina southward. 
The spotted sandpiper, although chiefly a fresh-water associate, is 
SO universally distributed that individuals at times are likely to visit 
Salt marshes. This bird, 64 to 8 inches long, is grayish brown above and 
white below, marked with round dark spots. These distinguish it from any 
other shore birds, This sandpiper is constantly bobbing and is on that ac- 
count widely called "teeter-tail". It usually cries "peet-weet", when tak- 
ing flight, and with down-curved wings alternately flaps and sails, usually 
not far before alighting again. It frequents both wet grassy or muddy areas. 
ives POinted out by the writer in 1911 (Biol. Surv.) ‘Cire: No. 79, 
p. 9) that shore birds deserve protection by their beneficial feeding 
habits. Where local conditions permit, the birds are highly insectivorous, 
feeding on grasshoppers; caterpillars, a amas such nests as cutworms, 
armyworm, and cotton worm; and beetles, including billbugs and wireworms, 
Adults and larvae of both horseflies and “fosquitoes are eaten; hundreds of 
mosquito "wizgglers" have eer out in single stomachs. Water beetles and 
their larvae that prey upon small fishes, marine worms that devour oysters, 
ticks that carry cattle Pocone and. Cees shes that ore destructive to crops 
and embankments, also sre consumed. by ae e ieee Shore birds not only 
thoroughly deserve protection, but must have it to exist. They lay only 
3 or 4 eggs, with only one laying a-year, so that probably only one or two 
young are reared, Most or them verform long migrations beset by hazards, 
and many of them migrate along narrow routes in which their whole popula- 
tions are concentrated and where they would repidly be killed off if ex- 
posed to attack by the army of hunters ve have today. Shore birds, with 
the Seto SIU MSE of a few species, have been protected at all seasons ever 
Since the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918, and, despite 
some poaching, have responded encouragingly to protection. Without it, 
many or the species would now be extinct. 
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