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THIS pretty shore bird, known as Bartram's Tattler, is found in more or
less abundance all over the United States, but is rarely seen west of the
Rocky Mountains. It usually breeds from the middle districts--Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas northward, into the fur
country, and in Alaska. It is very numerous in the prairies of the
interior, and is also common eastward. It has a variety of names, being
called Field Plover, Upland Plover, Grass Plover, Prairie Pigeon, and
Prairie Snipe. It is one of the most familiar birds on the dry, open
prairies of Manitoba, where it is known as the "Quaily," from its soft,
mellow note. The bird is less aquatic than most of the other Sandpipers, of
which there are about twenty-five species, and is seldom seen along the
banks of streams, its favorite resorts being old pastures, upland, stubble
fields, and meadows, where its nest may be found in a rather deep
depression in the ground, with a few grass blades for lining. The eggs are
of a pale clay or buff, thickly spotted with umber and yellowish-brown;
usually four in number.
The Sandpiper frequently alights on trees or fences, like the Meadow Lark.
This species is far more abundant on the plains of the Missouri river
region than in any other section of our country. It is found on the high
dry plains anywhere, and when fat, as it generally is, from the abundance
of its favorite food, the grasshopper, is one of the most delicious
imaginable.
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Marshall Saunders tells us that in Scotland seven thousand children were
carefully trained in kindness to each other and to dumb animals.
It is claimed that not one of these in after years was ever tried for any
criminal offense in any court. How does that argue for humane education? Is
not this heart training of our boys and girls one which ought to claim the
deepest sympathy and most ready support from us when we think of what it
means to our future civilization? "A brutalized child," says this
great-hearted woman, "is a lost child." And surely in _permitting_ any act
of cruelty on the part of our children, we brutalize them, and as teachers
and parents are responsible for the result of our neglect in failing to
teach them the golden rule of kindness to all of God's creatures. It is
said that out of two thousand criminals examined recently in American
prisons, only twelve admitted that they had been kind to animals during
youth. What strength does that fact contain as an argument for humane
education?
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