PIED PIPERS OF SANTA BARBARA. 
251 
when they hew away distracted with frij^-ht. The e< 2 :^s 
were four in number, somewhat smaller than those of a 
field-fare, cla 3 "-colored and disked with blue. 
There are endless varieties of sand-piper, the Santa Bar¬ 
bara species bein< 2 ; one of the smallest known, smaller than 
some hummin^f-birds. As units the}" are hardly to lie con¬ 
sidered, identity beinj^ mer^^ed in a swirl of two or three 
score that, in jiublic at least, keep together. Each is a 
mite, not unlike a pinch of j^ray thistle-down, and so 
atomic that an entire hock would scarcely outweigh a sea- 
^aill. 
Once, after a night-^^ale that covered the sea-shore with 
up-rooted weeds, I had a chance to examine several drowned 
pipers that had been caught napping on their favorite 
roost, the kelp. “Pied pipers” they were and beautifully 
marked. Each measured about hve and a quarter inches 
from tip of the long, queerly-crumpled bill to extreme of 
the rounded tail. The males were brownish-black on their 
heads and upper plumage, with ferruginous disks of deeper 
hue on back and scapules. Several of these birds were sent 
to the Smithsonian Institute, and the species has been pro¬ 
nounced unique. 
Though expert divers and fishers, the}" cannot swim, 
which renders the evolutions of a flock feeding from the 
crests of full-tide breakers wonderful to watch. The only 
sound they make is a weak, whistling sort of “weet, weet!” 
But despite their resemblance in main points these little 
beach-snipe differ a great deal in individual tints and mark¬ 
ings — as much, perhaps, as wingless bipeds of larger 
growth. For one piper ma}" be “light-complected,” with 
tie and waistcoat embroidered in umber crescents, while 
his nearest friend affects putty-gray sprigged with terra¬ 
cotta. 
Their flight is a wavering, serpentine line with simulta¬ 
neous wing-movement which against a background of 
waves resembles a long sea-snake, glittering with scales. 
The Santa Barbara Sea-serpent — advertised freelv in 1886 
— was a string of sand-pipers, seen by witnesses with more 
imagination than eye-sight. 
Santa Barbara fishermen declare that, on certain vears 
only, they have found sand-pipers’ nests on the Channel 
kelp-beds. This is credible to anyone who is familiar with 
these wonderful sea-hedges which border the shoal for sev¬ 
eral miles south of Point Concc])cion, are Avell off shore 
and so thickly massed that steamers are obliged to keep a 
passage-way cut through them o])positc to the pier landing. 
Great areas of these kel])-fields are left undisturbed to an 
infinite number of l)irds and other living creatures that 
