SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 
I6l 
boreal regions or around Hudson Bay, as had been asserted by 
Hutchinson. 
As soon as the Peet-Weet arrives on the coasts, small roving 
flocks are seen at various times of the day coursing rapidly 
along the borders of our tide-water streams, flying swift and 
rather low, in circuitous sweeps along the meanders of the 
creek or river, and occasionally crossing from side to side in 
a more sportive and cheerful mien than they assume at the 
close of autumn, when foraging becomes less certain. While 
flying out in these wide circuits, agitated by superior feelings 
to those of hunger and necessity, we hear the shores re-echo 
the shrill and rapid whistle of 'weet, 'meet, 'weet, 'weet, usu- 
ally closing the note with something like a warble as they 
approach their companions on the strand. The cry then again 
varies to 'peet, weei weet weet, beginning high and gradually 
declining into a somewhat plaintive tone. As the season 
advances, our little lively marine wanderers often trace the 
streams some distance into the interior, nesting usually in the 
fresh meadows among the grass, sometimes even near the 
house ; and I have seen their eggs laid in a strawberry bed, 
whence the young and old, pleased with their allowed protec- 
tion, familiarly probed the margin of an adjoining duck-pond 
for their usual fare of worms and insects. 
Like the preceding species, but more frequently, they have 
the habit of balancing or wagging the tail, in which even the 
young join as soon as they are fledged. From the middle to the 
close of May, as they happen to arrive in the different climates 
chosen for their summer residence, the pairs seceding from 
their companions seek out a site for their nest, which is always 
in a dry, open field of grass or grain, sometimes in the seclu- 
sion and shade of a field of maize, but most commonly in a dry 
pasture contiguous to the sea-shore ; and in some of the soli- 
tary and small sea-islands, several pairs sometimes nest near to 
each other, in the immediate vicinity of the noisy nurseries of 
the quailing Terus. The nest, sunk into the bosom of a grassy 
tuft, is slightly made of its withered tops, and with a thin 
lining of hay or bent. The eggs, four in number, are of a 
VOL. II. II 
