The Western Sandpiper 
Plovers. Often a company of these little tots, of whatever degree of mix¬ 
ture, will attach itself to some larger wader, a Knot or a Willet or a Long¬ 
billed Dowitcher, and the amiable giant, so adopted, is obeyed implicitly 
in subsequent evolutions. 
No better opportunity is afforded to study and speculate upon the 
mystery of flock movement than in the case of these gentle peeps. In 
Hock flight they weave and twist about, now hashing in the sunlight, now 
darkening to invisibility, charge and recharge, feint and hee, all as a single 
bird. And because they keep up a dainty chattering, like a fairy rattle-box, 
one cannot decide whose voice in the babel has authority. Upon alight¬ 
ing, they first pause in absolute silence, absurd little Platos, done in plaster 
and sown broadcast over the sandscape. This, that they may note 
whether their coming may have provoked hostile notice. Reassured upon 
this point, they become animated, and begin to patter and pick and probe 
and peep, as though there were nothing else in life. There is something 
so detached about their happy chatter, that the birdman feels like an 
uninvited cow whose hulking presence the banqueting fairies are politely 
minded to ignore. The flock moves slowly forward and successive platoons 
rising from the devastated rear pass over their fellows to take turns at the 
