384 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



the shores are once more enlivened by the cheery sights 

 and sounds of a profuse bird-life. 



As early as the end of July the whimbrels and the 

 Arctic skuas appear. Both these breed in Shetland and 

 have not far to come. Distance, however, is a mere 

 nothing to these cosmopolitan wanderers. It is an 

 element which is practically eliminated from their reckon- 

 ing's by the trim build and wide pinions of even the tiniest 

 waders. Thus the Shetlanders are hardly here than there 

 pours in, close behind them, a perfect flood of travellers 

 from the highest latitudes and most remote spots in the 

 known world — aye ! and beyond it too. Purple sandpipers 

 from Spitsbergen and turnstones from Nordland throng 

 the rocks ; godwits, knots, and sanderlings from Asiatic 

 tundras, greenshanks, ruffs, and whimbrels from various 

 points between Sutherland and Siberia, and a host of 

 allied birds from the morasses of Lapland and the 

 Scandinavian fjeld suddenly populate our shores. In 

 September the curlew-sandpiper, stints, and grey plover 

 arrive. 



Some of these birds have come to spend the winter on 

 our coasts ; another section only appear here in transit, pass- 

 ing on southwards at once, not to reappear (if at all) till their 

 return-journey northward in the following spring. This 

 latter group comprises those species which, seeking their 

 food largely among fresh water and its productions, are 

 dependent on mild, warm weather. They are impatient 

 of cold, and must always keep well to the southward of 

 the risk of frost — which to them implies starvation. 



Within this category fall the whimbrels, greenshanks, 

 common and curlew-sandpipers, the stints and the ruff. 

 The through-transit of these birds continues during the 

 months of August and September ; but it is probable that 



