the most interesting of the family, commonly called the "tip-up,"
going up all the mountain brooks and breeding in the sand along
their banks; but the characteristics are the same in all, and the
eye detects little difference except in size.

The walker on the beach sees it running or flitting before him,
following up the breakers and picking up the aquatic insects left
on the sands; and the trout-fisher along the farthest inland stream
likewise intrudes upon its privacy. Flitting along from stone to
stone seeking its food, the hind part of its body "teetering" up
and down, its soft gray color blending it with the pebbles and the
rocks, or else skimming up or down the stream on its long, convex
wings, uttering its shrill cry, the sandpiper is not a bird of the
sea merely; and Mrs. Thaxter's poem is as much for the dweller
inland as for the dweller upon the coast:--

THE SANDPIPER

Across the narrow beach we flit,
One little sandpiper and I;
And fast I gather, bit by bit,
The scattered driftwood bleached and dry.
The wild waves reach their hands for it,
The wild wind raves, the tide runs high,
As up and down the beach we flit,--
One little sandpiper and I.

Above our heads the sullen clouds
Scud black and swift across the sky;
Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds