with all the beauty to be found on the inside of an abalone 
shell, and these colors reflected from a million wavelets — 
made her feel that she was in a tropical garden. 
| Presently she heard soft tones and she almost prayed 
that the sandpipers would come near her. As they flew 
ay along, they gave a sudden turn, whirling about several times 
before they dropped down in complete silence, only a boat’s 
lensth away from her hidden place. The watcher hoped 
_ she might see them find their sleeping quarters when their 
chattering cries around their supper table made the twilight 
air resound, but, with the first gleams of moonlight, the > 
leaders lifted their pointed wings and the flock was off above . 
the waves as one bird. | 
One sunny day in August, while strolling on the long 
sandy point on the east side of Vashon Island in Puget 
Sound, the Red-backed Sandpipers were seen feeding just 
back of the ulva, that green seaweed which separated the 
white wave tips from the granite and sandstone pebbles, — 
which became smaller and smaller on the little slope until 
they merged into the yellowish-gray sand. These red- 
backed birds are larger and brighter chestnut than the 
Western Sandpipers and seem fond of this point and the 
lazy lagoon, which at high tide almost cuts an onlooker from 
the wooded shore. : 
An observer’s attention was steanked: while watching 
them, by the loud cries of four crows on the crooked 
branches near the top of a dead tree, mingled with the cries 
of a smaller bird that flew about them. Friend binoculars 
showed a lustrous greenish-black bird with crimson breast 
and white collar and the Lewis Woodpecker was recognized. 
Near by, huddled close to the trunk of the tree was a gray 
bird which seemed the cause of the quarrel. Again and 
again the woodpecker flew as close as he dared at the crows, 
until the latter flew away. 
_* Straight out from the tree, in regular flycatcher 
fashion, then flew the woodpecker after a large insect, 
73, 
