68 BIRDS or 1’. E. ISLAND.

anee. It comes to Prince Edward Island early in May. We see little of it during all the early part of summer, for it is then quietly employed about its nesting, far up the rivers, where islets of bright green marsh grass bestud the silvery border of the tide When intruded on, it is noisy and excited, flying round the marsh and uttering its loud piercing cries. Its large dark— colored eggs are placed in a carelessly built nest, in a tuft of grass, on the border of the marsh. In September it is common along the shores with the other Sandpipers, the most noisy, wary, and unapproachable of the crowd.

The Spotted Sandpiper, or “Pee—weer,” is our really “home bird’7 of the family. It is with us the whole summer from May till October, enlivening with its mellow piping every seamoast pasture in the land. At eve, it is flitting along the shadowed margin of the tide, sounding a rapid note for its mate. At noon, it is swinging in quick, nervous flights over the meadows, where its nesting charge is hid in the scented grass, or quietly foraging for a meal in the turnip patch. Its curious dodging and tilting of its body, as it

pursues insects on the shore, its feints and devices