264 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



the neighbourhood in spring the male has a 



peculiar love song, pirouetting and bowing like an 

 amorous Pigeon. The food consists of aquatic 

 insects, worms, crustaceans, and small molluscs," 

 Its habitat abroad extends over a wide range ; as 

 far north as Archangel ; south. Cape Colony ; east, 

 Japan, China, and India. 



The Sanderling. 



Order, Limicolce. Family, Charad^didcs. 



The little Plover is easily recognised by the 

 absence of a hind toe. From the middle of autumn 

 to mid-winter it is fairly well distributed on the sea- 

 shore, and in estuaries and inland waters. The 

 specimens in the case were shot at Glenbeigh, co. 

 Kerry, in the same year as the Redshanks. They 

 are in winter plumage, which is very different from 

 that in the spring ; in the latter the feathers of the 

 back are darkish, spotted with rufous, the throat 

 and breast are chestnut, and altogether the birds are 

 then much more handsome. Sanderlings may often 

 be seen in flocks with Dunlins and Ringed Plovers, 

 for whose companionship they appear to have a 

 preference, coming over to us in the autumn, 

 remaining with us part of the winter, then depart- 

 ing, and returning again in the spring in their 

 breeding-plumage, staying with us a couple of 

 months or so, and departing again to northern 

 latitudes for breeding during the summer ; so that 

 twice in the year Britain is used as a stopping-place ; 



