SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 
351 
the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, and their tributary waters, 
they are in great abundance during the summer. This species 
is as remarkable for perpetually wagging the tail, as some 
others are for nodding the head ; for, whether running on the 
ground, or on the fences, along the rails, or in the water, this 
motion seems continual ; even the young, as soon as they are 
freed from the shell, run about constantly wagging the tail. 
About the middle of May, they resort to the adjoining corn 
fields to breed, where I have frequently found and examined 
their nests. One of these now before me, and which was built 
at the root of a hill of Indian corn, on high ground, is com- 
posed wholly of short pieces of dry straw". The eggs are four, 
of a pale clay or cream colour, marked with large irregular 
spots of black, and more thinly with others of a paler tint. 
They are large in proportion to the size of the bird, measuring 
an inch and a quarter in length, very thick at the great end, 
and tapering suddenly to the other. The young run about 
with wonderful speed as soon as they leave the shell, and are 
then covered with down of a dull drab colour, marked with a 
single streak of black down the middle of the back, and with 
another behind each ear. They have a weak, plaintive note. 
On the approach of any person, the parents exhibit symptoms 
of great distress, counterfeiting lameness, and fluttering along 
the ground with seeming difficulty. On the appearance of a 
dog, this agitation is greatly increased ; and it is very interesting 
to observe with what dexterity she will lead him from her 
young, by throwing herself repeatedly before him, fluttering 
off, and keeping just without his reach, on a contrary direction 
from her helpless brood. My venerable friend, Mr William 
Bartram, informs me, that he saw one of these birds defend 
her young for a considerable time from the repeated attacks 
of a ground squirrel. The scene of action was on the river 
shore. The parent had thrown herself, with her two young 
behind her, between them and the land ; and at every attempt 
of the squirrel to seize them by a circuitous sweep, raised both 
her wings in an almost perpendicular position, assuming the 
