6 WADING BIRDS. 



migrations also into moderate climates in the winter. They 

 do not, however, in Europe, proceed as far south as the 

 capital of Italy, as we learn from the careful and assiduous 

 observations of the Prince of Musignano. According to 

 Latham, the Sanderlincr is known to be an inhabitant even 

 of the remote coast of Australia, and is found on the shores 

 of Lake Baikal in Siberia. In the month of May, or as 

 soon as they have recovered from the moult of spring, they 

 leave us for the north, but are seldom in good order for the 

 table until autumn, vv^hen, with their broods, they arrive 

 remarkably plump and fat, and are then justly esteemed as 

 a delicacy by the epicure. Besides the various kinds of in- 

 sect food, already mentioned, on which they live, they like- 

 wise swallow considerable portions of sand, in order, ap- 

 parently, to assist the process of digestion. 



The Sanderling is about 8 inches in length ; the alar extent or 

 stretch of the wings being 14 inches. The bill and legs black, the 

 former about 1^ inches long. Summer plumage, the feathers black 

 in the centres, bordered with ferruginous, and fringed with white, 

 the black spots only larger, and the rufous borders deeper, on the 

 scapulars. Four first primaries brown externally and on the tips ; 

 their inner webs, and the bases of the other quills, with the whole 

 under plumage white. Rump gray. The 2 central tail feathers 

 blackish-brown, slightly edged with ferruginous; the others of a 

 soiled white. Wings equal with the tail. — After the moult in au- 

 tvmn and in winter, all the upper parts, and the sides of the neck, 

 are of a whitish gray, but with a small trait of a deeper color in the 

 centre of each feather. In the young bird before moulting, the dark 

 upper plumage is bordered by yellowish, and varied with small spots 

 of the same color. 



LONG-LEGGED PLOVERS, or STILTS. 



(HiMANTOPus, Brisson, Tern.) 



Lv the birds of this singular genus, formerly included among the 

 Plovers, the bill is long, slender, cylindric, attenuated, flattened at 



