. A popular handbook of the birds of Canada and the United States [microform]. Oiseaux; Birds. I83 WADING red and pale purple, most numerous at the great end. In the Middle Stotes this bird is believed to raise two broods in the season. The female is so much atUched to her eggs, after sitting, as sometimes to allow of being Uken up by the hand rather than desert the premises, — which affection appears the more necessary as the male seems to deserts his mate and leave her in the sole charge of her little family. About the i8th of June, in this vicinity, in a wet part of the salt-marsh m
. A popular handbook of the birds of Canada and the United States [microform]. Oiseaux; Birds. I83 WADING red and pale purple, most numerous at the great end. In the Middle Stotes this bird is believed to raise two broods in the season. The female is so much atUched to her eggs, after sitting, as sometimes to allow of being Uken up by the hand rather than desert the premises, — which affection appears the more necessary as the male seems to deserts his mate and leave her in the sole charge of her little family. About the i8th of June, in this vicinity, in a wet part of the salt-marsh making into a fresh meadow near Charles River, one moonlight evening as late as nine o'clock I heard a busy male of this species calling out at short intervals in a guttural, creaking tone, almost like the sound of a watchman's rattle, 'kuta-cit Ut-ih, — the call,sometimes a little varied. At this time, no doubt, hU mate was somewhere sitting on her eggs in some tuft of the tall marine grass (SparHna glabra) which overhung the muddy inlet near which he took his station. The young, for some time after being hatched, are covered wholly with i jet-black down, r.;-d running with agility, are now sometimes seen near the Qcep marshes, straying into the uplands and drier places, following the careful mother much in the manner of a hen with her brood of chickens. When sepa- rated from the parent at a more advanced age, their slender peep, peep, peep, is heard and soon answered by the attentive parent. The female when startled in her watery retreat often utters a sharp, squeaking scream apparently close at hand, which sounds like 'keek, 'keek, 'kek: on once approaching, as I thought, the author of this discordant and timorous cry, it still slowly receded, but always appeared within a few feet o( me, and at length pressing the pursuit pretty closely, she rose for a Uttle distance with hanging legs, and settled down into a ditch among some pond-lily leaves, over v. lich she darted and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1903
