I have received from Newport, May iS and June 2, both 
Least Sandpipers and Semipalmated Sandpipers; it is probable 
that they do not breed in the State, but if they do not it seems 
peculiar that they should be here during the breeding season ; 
herein lies a mystery for someone to solve. 
With us the most favorable time to observe such birds as mi¬ 
grate through or remain in Rhode Island, seems to be from the 
first to the twentieth of May. To obtain full benefit, a start must 
be made very early in the morning (birds do not slumber on their 
perches after the first streak of dawn) ; at such a time the warm 
air is sweet with the fragrance of opening buds; robins, orioles, 
larks, and tanagers whistle from the tree tops. The red-winged 
blackbird concarccs in the swamps while troops of little finches 
and warblers keep up a chorus in every thicket. While I be¬ 
lieve the number of our resident birds is not so great as in time 
past, I still think that some residents of our cities would be sur¬ 
prised at what they might see and enjoy if they could renew their 
youth, and at sunrise in favorable situations look and listen, they 
would find the conditions much the same as when they were boys, 
but “ the mountain will not go to Mohammed. Mohammed 
must go to the mountain”. 
Commonly to be found with us are two kinds of Bitterns, and 
three kinds of Herons, with one instance of a fourth. Our largest 
species (the Great Blue) is most popularly called a Crane. This 
is a serious error ; the Crane is taller, has no powder-down tracks, 
and the whole plumage is more compact and smooth. I find no 
record of the Crane in Rhode Island. 
Our Herons, like others of their group, have on different parts 
of the body three pairs of spots of compact, dark, yellowish 
down, a peculiar appendage perhaps not altogether understood, 
but supposed to emit a phosphorescent light, useful to its owner 
when on a night fishing trip, and also thought by some observers 
to be useful in ridding the birds of insect pests, for the herons are 
singularly tree from such. Their food is chiefly fish and frogs; 
they eat voraciously, but rarely grow fat. I judge they are sel¬ 
dom killed for food, although I can testify that a nicely cooked 
Heron is very palatable. 
It is needless to mention in detail our common game birds and 
