"^"Ik^"] WiDMANX, A Winter Robin Boost in Missouri. g 



They seem to feel at home and when disturbed are loath to leave. 

 This out-of-the-way slough is at times a true asylum for the poor 

 hunted game-birds. A few St. Louis business men have acquired 

 the sole right to hunt with the intention to spend the Sundays 

 here a-hunting ; but the county officials found it good to enforce 

 the law which forbids shooting on Sundays. The consequence is 

 that the birds have a good time generally and on some days it 

 looks as if it were a veritable paradise for Ducks and Snipes, when 

 they feed unmolested from morn till night. 



If we slowly and carefully approach, there will be a little stir 

 among them, but soon all will resume their vocation, especially 

 when the day is cool and birds are hungry. In such weather the 

 Snipes do not lie still but feed all day. See, one walks in the water 

 just in front of us, knee-deep, unmindful of our presence, con- 

 tinually thrusting the long bill into the mud below, immersing the 

 face to the edge of the eye. 



A party of Mallards, an equal number of males and females, is 

 swimming in the water, only a hundred yards away. They try to 

 hide behind the spatter dock, the females at least, but the beau- 

 tiful greenheads will never for a moment turn their watchful eye 

 from us, and if we should make the least suspicious demonstration, 

 all would be up at once. 



Six Pectoral Sandpipers, Tringa maculata, come with a song, 

 and, after alighting near the edge of the water, make immediately 

 into it and begin to feed, picking at every step. 



The slough forms here a small lake, a few inches deep, in fact 

 just deep enough to allow two Yellow-legs, Totanus flavipes, to 

 wade all over its midst, while the Pectoral Sandpipers with their 

 shorter legs must remain along its edge. Thus they feed together 

 for hours, if undisturbed, and we have ample opportunity to com- 

 pare their appearance and behavior. At first sight, their dress 

 seems pretty much alike, but the back of Totanus is finer and 

 darker mottled, and viewed from thd side the black wing-tips form 

 a conspicuous patch, completely hiding the white upper tail- 

 coverts, while in Tringa the corresponding region shows a white 

 area, formed by the upper and lower tail-coverts. The superciliary 

 in both birds is only obvious when the birds are seen from in 

 front ; the face of Tringa is more Snipe-like, the bill of Totanus is 



