SANDERLING. 621 



says "It frequents sandy shores, and is occasionally met with at 

 Bridlington, generally in autumn." 



Although this nimble little wader is to be met with in 

 every month of the year on the sandy beaches and tidal 

 estuaries, it is by far best known as a common bird of double 

 passage, and during its migration down the coast in autumn 

 it is at times quite as numerous as the Dunlin and Ringed 

 Plover in the Tees district, which is its chief Yorkshire haunt. 

 Small parties on return migration appear about mid-July ; the 

 17th, 20th, 14th, 17th, and i6th respectively being the earliest 

 dates for the years 1901 to 1905, These first arrivals are 

 wholly composed of old birds in summer plumage, and at 

 the end of the month they are found in flocks from about 

 ten to a hundred strong ; birds of the year are seldom noted 

 before the first week of the succeeding month, and by the 

 middle of August large flights of guileless youngsters, together 

 with mature birds fast losing the mottled throats, swarm 

 on the beach by the tide-line. In September the immature 

 birds outnumber the old, and at times large bags may be 

 made by those gunners who are desirous of shooting such 

 " small deer." 



In October the Sanderling becomes less common ; the 

 few that remain associate with the huge congregations ol 

 waders which spend the winter in comparative safety, their 

 extreme wildness rendering them unapproachable within gun- 

 shot, and at this period odd birds may be seen in the beautiful 

 perfect grey plumage ; it was very abundant in February 

 1870, in the neighbourhood of Bridlington, as many as fifty 

 individuals being in some of the flocks. Late in spring the 

 northward migration commences, the first comers I have noted 

 being on 4th May in 1897, when several individuals were on 

 the mud-flats at the Teesmouth ; it collects in considerable 

 numbers imtil early June, and so late as the nth of the 

 month, in the year 1903, 1 watched six small companies on the 

 sands near Redcar ; but this movement is not so pronounced 

 as that in autumn. At Spurn the Sanderling arrives on 

 the return journey from its nesting grounds late in July, 

 August, and through September ; in May it occurs in small 



