FLORIDA : THE GULF COAST 157 



Here, too, were countless numbers of the so-called 

 shore-birds passing the winter season after the 

 long journey from their northern breeding grounds. 

 Long-billed curlews, marble godwits, willets, both 

 kinds of dowitcher, turnstones, oyster-catchers, 

 black-bellied plovers, ring-necked plovers, piping 

 plovers, least sandpipers, semipalmated sandpipers, 

 dunlins, and sanderlings, formed a heterogene- 

 ous company. At low tide, with the exposure 

 of the oyster bars and sand beaches, they were 

 scattered over large areas, but even then their 

 number was evident. At high tide, when they 

 resorted to such small spaces as the water left un- 

 covered, they were crowded so close in masses as 

 fairly to touch one another. At midday under 

 these conditions such flocks presented a novel 

 sight. Approached quietly in a boat all might 

 be seen in repose. The greater number were fast 

 asleep, many with heads beneath their wings. 

 When wdthin twenty yards some of the more 

 w^akeful uttered a low series of gurgling, warning 

 cries. Presently there was much stretching of 

 necks and legs and preliminary shakings of wings, 

 followed by a vast flight of birds as the boat al- 

 most touched the reef on which they had been 

 resting. 



I must not forget to mention the abundance 

 of small birds; marsh-wrens, seaside and sharp- 

 tailed finches were present wherever the sedge- 



