. Rural bird life : being essays on ornithology with instructions for preserving objects relating to that science . d perilous journey that awaits them. The Sandpiper, like the Swallow, needs the presenceof perpetual summer, and when the first days of autumnarrive we see them probably more active than usual, andfar, very far more noisy. The time of departure hasarrived. Suddenly we miss them from their sandywastes, no longer see their little footprints marking outtheir wandering course on the mud flats. They have leftus for more genial climes, and that, too, in the night—for birds of this orde
. Rural bird life : being essays on ornithology with instructions for preserving objects relating to that science . d perilous journey that awaits them. The Sandpiper, like the Swallow, needs the presenceof perpetual summer, and when the first days of autumnarrive we see them probably more active than usual, andfar, very far more noisy. The time of departure hasarrived. Suddenly we miss them from their sandywastes, no longer see their little footprints marking outtheir wandering course on the mud flats. They have leftus for more genial climes, and that, too, in the night—for birds of this order that migrate invariably do so atthat time ; or if only of a wandering disposition, we findthey journey from one place to another under the coverof darkness. I cannot find that the Sandpiper assemblesin flocks for the purpose of migrating, and it is veryprobable they do not. The young, however, migratewith their parents, and as these parties near their southerndestination they may probably unite in companies tospend the winter ; but this, after all, is mere conjecture,and must be taken for what it is THE SNIPE, As we wander round the mountain lakes, over theseemingly interminable swamp, where the ground be-neath us trembles under our weight, and we have topick our way carefully, stepping from one cluster ofrushes to another, we are apt to ponder over the absenceof bird life. True, we have passed a short while ago acompany of Plovers on the higher grounds, and seen theRed Grouse in plenty on the drier land, still here allseems desolate. As we pause to admire the sublimityof Nature in her wildest aspects, the perfect silenceseems oppressive, and a slight feeling of sadness creepsirresistibly upon us. Nothing breaks the solemn stillnessof the wilderness save the incessant lap lap of the waters,stirred into motion by the mountain breeze, or therustling murmurs of the reeds and the plash plash of our THE SNIPE. 327 footsteps as we wander cautiously along. Suddenly,however
Size: 1407px × 1775px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorcoue, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbirds
