appellation of _Humility_, by which they and some other small birds of similar habits have been distinguished. For the discovery of their food, their flexible and sensitive awl-like bills are thrust into the mire, marshy soil, or wet sand, in the manner of the Snipe and Woodcock, and in this way they discover and route from their hiding retreat, the larvæ and soft worms which form a principal part of their fare. At other times, they also give chase to insects, and pursue their calling with amusing alacrity. When at length startled, or about to join the company they have left, a sharp, short, and monotonous whistle, like the word _peet_, or _peep_, is uttered, and they instantly take to wing, and course along with the company they had left. On seeing the larger marsh-birds feeding, as the Yellow-shanks and others, a whirling flock of the Peeps will descend among them, being generally allowed to feed in quiet; and at the approach of the sportsman, these little timorous rovers are ready to give the alarm. At first, a slender _peep_ is heard, which is then followed by two or three others, and presently _peep_, _pip_, _pip’ p’p_, murmurs in a lisping whistle through the quailing ranks, as they rise on the wing, and inevitably entice with them their larger but less watchful associates. Towards evening in fine weather, the marshes almost re-echo with the shrill but rather murmuring or lisping, subdued, and querulous call of _peet_, and then a repetition of _pé-dee_, _pé-dée_, _deĕ-dĕe_, which seems to be the collecting cry of the old birds calling together their brood, for, when assembled, the note changes into a confused murmur of _peet_, _peet_, attended by a short and suppressed whistle.” During my never-to-be-forgotten residence at Henderson, on the banks of the fair Ohio, I was in the habit of frequently seeing large flocks of these birds on the sandy shores of that river, during the autumnal months, and finding after a while that they could easily be driven into a partridge net, I laid one accordingly on several occasions, when, by using gentle means, I induced many dozens of these tiny, fat, and delicious birds to enter and become prisoners. I clipped the wings of many of them, and turned them loose in my garden, for the purpose of studying their habits in this sort of half-confined state; but they were all soon destroyed by these most destructive pests, the Norway rats, which at that time infested all my premises.