. Gray Lady and the birds; stories of the bird year for home and school . of food- or game-birds, and I should like to seethem wiped from it forever, or, at least, until they areonce more plentiful in their haunts. These are the twocousins of the Woodcock, — Sandpipers, the Spotted andthe Least, and two Plovers, also water-loving birds, theKilldeer and the Upland Plover. Most of you children, at some part of the season, godown to the shore of the bay yonder, perhaps it may bewhen your fathers gather seaweed in the spring and fall,in late summer for the snapper fishing, or all through theautumn
. Gray Lady and the birds; stories of the bird year for home and school . of food- or game-birds, and I should like to seethem wiped from it forever, or, at least, until they areonce more plentiful in their haunts. These are the twocousins of the Woodcock, — Sandpipers, the Spotted andthe Least, and two Plovers, also water-loving birds, theKilldeer and the Upland Plover. Most of you children, at some part of the season, godown to the shore of the bay yonder, perhaps it may bewhen your fathers gather seaweed in the spring and fall,in late summer for the snapper fishing, or all through theautumn and early winter for long-necked clams. Someof you, I know, like Tommy and Dave, have camped outthere for several weeks. Have you not noticed the littleprints of birds feet just above the edge of tide-water?Or have you not seen the little birds themselves, no big-;ger than Sparrows, with streaked, brown-gray backs andsoft white feathers underneath, running to and fro,balancing when they feed, as if making a courtesy, all thewhile whispering softly among themselves?. MOURNING DOVES OAME-BIBDS f 221 Or, again, others slightly larger, with ash and brownbacks, and underparts spotted with round, black markslike a thrush, white spotted wings, and the outer tail-feathers white barred, showing in flight ? ^ These two gracious, confiding little birds are the Leastand the Spotted Sandpiper. Their small size shouldkeep them off the food list, for what are their dead bodiesbut a single mouthful ? And what are they alive ? Thingsof joy and mystery combined. For what is a more per-fect picture of grace and happiness than these birds witha background of sand, seaweed, and shells, and all thesparkling water before ? Of a gray day, their pleasant prattle is shut downby the fog, and sounds strange and mysterious, and whenthey spread their pointed wings, and vanish into the mist,that seems to pick them up as it rolls in, the picture iscomplete. The Least Sandpiper, the smallest of his tribe, i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidcu319240, booksubjectbirds
