120 CHARADRIUS HIATICULA. 



appear to the grave admirer of nature an enthusiast, or an 

 imitator of other men's musings. Well, let him think as he 

 lists ; hut yet lives there the man, calling himself an orni- 

 thologist, Avho, quietly strolling along the bright sandy 

 beach just left bare by the retiring tide, and aroused from 

 his pleasing reveries by the mellow Avhistle of the Ring- 

 Plover, would not gaze with delight on the pleasant little 

 thing that speeds away before him with twinkling feet, now 

 stops, pipes its clear cry, runs, spreads its beautiful wings, 

 glides close over the sand, and alights on some not distant 

 tuft. What are primaries and secondaries, coecums and 

 duodenums, types and analogies, squares or circles, to him 

 who thus Avatches the living bird ? There is the broad blue 

 sea, on that hand the green pasture, under foot and around 

 the pure sand, above the sunny sky. FroAvn not upon the 

 cheerfulness of nature ; shout aloud, run, leap, make the 

 Sand Lark thy playmate. Why mayest thou not be drunk 

 with draughts of pure ether ? Are the gambols of a merry 

 naturalist less innocent than the mad freaks, the hoAvlings, 

 the ravings of sapient men assembled to deliberate about 

 corn-laAvs, or party zealots upholding their creed by palpably 

 demonstrating their total Avant of charity ? 



By the middle of August, the young of this species are 

 able to shift for themselves. After this period small flocks 

 of from five or six to fifteen or twenty individuals, may be 

 seen here and there along the sandy or pebbly shores, chiefly 

 in the neighbourhood of high-Avater mark, although some- 

 times also by the edge of the sea. Most of them have 

 nestled on the shores of the ocean, many on those of 

 estuaries, some of rivers and lakes, and a feAv even on sandy 

 heaths or Avarrens remote from Avater. But iioav they all 

 resort to the sea, especially near the mouths of rivers. They 

 run Avith great speed, pick up insects, Crustacea, small 

 shelled mollusca, and marine Avorms, along Avith which they 

 SAA'alloAv some particles of sand and gravel. Their mode of 

 proceeding differs considerably from that of the Tringa?, with 

 which, they often associate. The bird stands, suddenly runs 

 forward, picks up an object, stands again, and thus proceeds, 

 someAvhat in the manner of the Thrush. It does not probe 



