BIRDS OF THE SHORES 423 



ling, to be distinguished at once by his silvery 

 hues intermingled with black, the Redshank and 

 the Grey Plover. Here may be commonly seen the 

 Bar-tailed Godwit, and upon some happy occasion, 

 a sight of the Ruff and of the still rarer Black-tailed 

 Godwit may be gained. Here, too, in the bents 

 fringing this land of the migrants, the Rustic 

 Bunting once appeared, and in the rough pastures 

 beyond, MacOueen's Bustard, two extremely rare 

 occurrences in England. 



The Grey Plover resembles the Golden in many 

 respects, but may be readily distinguished by its 

 larger size, lighter hue, and by the blackness of 

 the under wing-feathers displayed in flight. It is 

 one of the species which nests in the far north, and 

 is known in England only on the spring and 

 autumn migrations. The Bar-tailed Godwit, too, 

 is familiar only as a bird of passage, and although 

 its eggs have been obtained in Finland, little is 

 known of its breeding haunts. The Black-tailed, 

 on the other hand, now rarer on migration, is said 

 at one time to have nested, with more or less 

 regularity, in the fens of Norfolk and Lincolnshire. 



The Redshank, although many which visit the 

 mud-flats are foreign-bred birds, nests in most of 

 the English counties. Its distribution is somewhat 

 local, but in most of the wider marshy expanses of 

 this country, one or two pairs, and often small com- 

 munities, may be found breeding. It is a greyish- 

 hued bird with long red legs, and usually makes 

 its presence known by its loud whistling cries as it 

 flies round and round the disturber of its solitudes. 



The two kindred species, the Greenshank and the 



