92 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



He is considerably smaller than the knot. The red-necked 

 stint is known as T. nificoUis. Dunlins collect on the sea- 

 shore in immense numbers, and a flight of them in fine 

 weather when their silvery white under covering may be 

 seen is something to be remembered. They are very noisy 

 birds as a rule. One of the sandpipers, T. subarquafa, is 

 known as the curlew sandpiper, or by some as the pigmy 

 curlew. It is much the same size as the dunlin, and has 

 markings more or less like those of the curlew, the mingled 

 browns on the back, the speckled throat, and the white under 

 covering. One other must be named, T. subminuta, or 

 T. pyginaea, a diminutive little fellow with a spoonbill. He 

 is known as the spoon-billed sandpiper, is about the size of a 

 snippet or smaller, his characteristic being the spreading 

 out of the last half inch or so of his bill until the breadth 

 is perhaps three quarters of an inch. Temminck's stint, 

 T. Temininhii, is also known in the east. It is approximately 

 the size of the dunlin, Psettdoscolopaxseuiipalinatiis, the half 

 web-footed '"false snipe," is a long-legged handsome bird, 

 with snipe colouring on the back, but with head and breast 

 a sort of ruddy chocolate. 



There are still others to be noticed from amongst the 

 many shore and marsh birds which visit us in their semi- 

 annual wanderings. But those already named are enough 

 to give some idea of the variety to be found. Earlier in the 

 year the snipe and woodcock came in for their share of 

 attention, and there is no need to repeat what was then said. 

 But the sportsman, of course, will not forget that however 

 manj' kinds of plovers and other long legs there maj^ be to 

 attract him, there are also, in variable numbers according to 

 the conditions prevailing, his old friends the long bills. And 

 there is this consolation always, at least in Shanghai and its 

 neighbourhood, the birds shot are either going to or coming 

 from their breeding places. They are not being killed, therefore, 

 in the breeding season. I have an old encyclopaedia of sport 

 in which the writer has the conscience to pen the following: — 

 "As a summer shooting we hardly know a more lively or more 

 amusing one than pulling down the plover. Like most other 

 shooting at birds on the wing, it requires both tact and habit. 

 A dog assists your success, particularly, it is said, in the 

 breeding season." The unfeeling scoundrel ! Luckily we have 

 -a close season now by law — not in China unfortunately, 

 except so far as the Shanghai Municipal Council can make 

 one; but in the minds of all sportsmen of feeling, legal 

 restrictions are unncessary. 



Still another excuse, or rather two excuses, for shooting 

 snipe, plover, and their congeners, if excuse were needed, 

 are to be found in the vast numbers of these birds and their 



