A Lincolnshire Mud=flat 



17.5 



Bar-tailed Godwit (Liniosa lappoutcd), 

 Winter Plumage. 



and feed in suitable places. 

 As they travel onM ards their 

 places are constantly taken 

 by fresh arrivals, while they 

 pass along our coasts, and 

 through the Aast marshy 

 plains of Southern Europe, 

 until they are lost in the 

 great African Continent, the 

 winter quarters of so many 

 millions of the feathered race. 

 In the spring they begin their 

 return journey with equal 

 regularity. 



Hence it is that the mud-Hats of the AVash, which all 

 the summer through have been almost devoid of bird life, 

 are now ali^e with immense flocks, busily running over 

 the shimmering surface, and flying along the water's edge 

 as the encroaching tide restricts their feeding-groimds and 

 drives them along before it. 



AMiite flocks of Gulls, like drifting sea-foam dot 

 the distant margin. Curlews, Godwits, Redshanks, Knots^ 

 and Oyster-catchers explore the shallow pools tufted with 

 samphire. Ever and anon circling flocks of Dunlins, now 

 dark against the sky, now gleaming white against the moist 

 muddy surface, dash past in search of fresh feeding-grounds ; 

 while others trip nimbly over the shining sands, or with 

 half-expanded wings, like tiny pleasure-boats, run before the 



