BIRDS OF THE SEA AND THE SHORE. 249 



belong to the tribe of Waders, which are more graceful 

 in their walk than any that live in trees and bushes. 

 The great length of their legs permits them to take long 

 and unembarrassed steps and to move with great facility, 

 nodding all the while with the most amusing gesticula- 

 tions. A flock of Sandpipers on the beach where it is 

 left open by the receding tide, employing themselves in 

 gathering their repast of marine insects, always in motion, 

 nodding their heads and bending their bodies as if they 

 moved them on a pivot, now carelessly taking their food, 

 then suddenly raising their heads upon a slight alarm, 

 now moving in companies a short distance, then rising in 

 a momentary flight, is, to the eye of a young sportsman, 

 one of the most interesting sights in animated nature. 



The interest we feel in these birds is caused by their 

 picturesque assemblages in twittering flocks and by their 

 peculiar cries. The voices of the sea-birds have a family 

 resemblance. We can always distinguish their cries, which 

 are shrill and piercing. Their notes are never low and 

 could seldom be mistaken for those of land-birds. The 

 Sandpipers afford great sport to young gunners, who over- 

 take and surprise them upon the flats of solitary inlets 

 when the tide is low. They arrive in dense flocks, alight- 

 ing at the edge of the tide and taking the insects as 

 they are uncovered ; and the dashing of the waves close 

 to their ranks causes them to be constantly flitting as 

 they break at their feet. While we watch them there 

 seems to be an active contention between them and the 

 rippling edges of the water. 



It is in winter that the picturesque movements of land- 

 birds are most apparent. In summer and in autumn, 

 before the fall of the leaf, birds are partially concealed 

 by the foliage of trees and shrubs, so that the manner of 

 their flight cannot be so easily observed. In winter, if 

 we start a flock of them from the ground, we may watch 



