Sandpiper

a name applied to numerous species of the snipe family. The North American species are found from the Yukon Valley to the Gulf. They are strictly shore birds frequenting both the seacoast and inland waters. Of one species Chapman says:

The thought of these little sandpipers always creates a mental picture of a long stretch of dazzling beach with its ever-changing surf-line. I hear the oft-repeated booming of the rolling, tumbling breakers, and in the distance see a group of tiny forms hurrying to and fro over the sand smoothed by the frothy waves. With what nimble gracefulness they follow the receding waves, searching for treasures cast up by the sea! What contentment and good-fellowship are expressed by their cheery, conversational twitterings! Up and down the beach they run, now advancing, now retreating, sometimes, in their eagerness venturing too far, when the waters threaten to ingulf them, and in momentary confusion they take wing and hover back to a place of safety. Suddenly, as though at a signal, they are off; a compact flock moving as one bird, twisting and turning to right and left, now gleaming white as the sun strikes their snowy bodies, now dark again like a wisp of sunless cloud flying before the wind.

The sandpipers are small birds with straight bills. In a classification they stand between the snipe and the plover.