THE SHORE PATROL 



213 



around the sides of the head. They were taking needed 

 rest and refreshment on their long journey from Patagonia to 

 the Arctic Sea, and we left them with sincere wishes for their 

 prosperity. Thus I encountered many a flock, and even found 

 a band of them wading in a shallow alkaline lake. 



FLOCK OF TURNSTONLS, WITH A WILSON'S PLOVER, A DOWITCHER, AND A SANDPIPER 



Near here the next morning, on a muddy flat bordering 

 a small slough, I had my introduction to a kind of wader that 

 I had long desired to meet. I saw them, a band of a dozen, 

 long of leg and bill, scattered about, eagerly probing in the 

 rich Dakota mud. They had reddish breasts and white rumps, 

 and I knew they were the Hudsonian Godwit, a bird I had 

 never seen alive. They remained there all day, giving me 

 abundant opportunity to watch their graceful motions, - — 

 walking, probing, and wading, — which resembled those of 

 the Yellow-legs. This species, too, breeds in the far North. 



Other migratory species were also passing, lingering awhile 

 along the margins of the lakes or the muddy shores of the 

 sloughs. Many Turnstones, in their most brilliant plumage, 

 were enjoying the pebbly shores of the larger lakes. In one 



