386 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



list of this group, I must mention also the following' allied 

 birds, which also pass south at about the same period, but 

 so scarcely or irregularly that one may shoot for years 

 without meeting with any of them. They are the green 

 and wood-sandpipers (both these travelling inland), the 

 little and Temminck's stints, the spotted redshank, and 

 the phalaropes. 



Coincidently with this extensive "through-transit" in 

 August and September, there also occurs the arrival of 

 those hardier members of the same great bird-family 

 which mean to make our shores their winter home. These 

 are chiefly curlews, godwits, knots, redshanks, grey plovers, 

 turnstones, dunlin, purple sandpiper, sea-pyots, and, in 

 less degree, the sanderling. This last might almost be 

 included in the former category, so few are found here 

 in winter, though abundant enough in autumn. 



The months of August and September, it will thus be 

 seen, are a period of great activity among the feathered 

 tribes of the coast, and an interesting period to spend 

 among them. Rambling on a fine autumn day over the 

 wastes of sand, one enjoys charming views of bird-life. 

 Suddenly one finds oneself almost in the midst of a flock 

 of graceful little creatures — dunlins, ringed plovers, and 

 sanderlings, all mixed- — which, among the myriad small 

 pyramidal piles cast up by the sand-worms, had escaped 

 observation at first. So tame are these that one can 

 watch, close at hand, their pretty postures and agile 

 movements as they dart about, nimble as mice, each 

 form reflected on the mirror-like surface of wet sand. 

 Further up, on the drier ground, close to the sand- 

 links, are curlew-sandpipers ; and where a mussel-bed has 

 created a mixed deposit of mud and sand, will be found 



