WADERS, DIVERS, AND OTHER FOWL. 235 



sea-gull's wing, or perhaps a brood of young Slield-Ducks — 

 that is all one sees in several hours' ramble. But in August 

 a change occurs. In a few days the shores are once more 

 enlivened by the cheery siglits and cries of a profuse bird-life. 



As early as the end of July the Whimbrels and the Arctic 

 Skuas appear. Both these birds 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 reckonings by the trim build 

 and wide pinions of even the tiniest waders. Thus the 

 SheLlanders are hardly here ere there pours in, close behind 

 them, a perfect flood of travellers from the highest latitudes 

 and most remote spots in the known Avorld — aye ! and beyond 

 it too. Purple Sandpipers from Spitzbergen and Turnstones 

 from Nordland throng the rocks ; Godwits, Knots, Grey 

 Plovers, and Sauderlings from Asiatic tundms ; Greenshanks, 

 Rufifs, and Whimbrels from various points betv/een Suther- 

 land and Siberia, and a host of cognate birds from the 

 morasses of Lapland and the Norwegian fjeld suddenly 

 populate our shores. In September the Curlew -Sandpiper 

 arrives— who can say from where ? 



Many of these l)irds have come to spend the whole winter 

 on our coasts ; but a large section only appear here in 

 transit, passing on southwards at once, not to reappear till 

 their return journey northward in the following spring. This 

 latter group comprises those species w^hich, 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 

 no individual Inrd spends more than a few days on our coast, 

 the period being occupied by the continuous succession of 

 fresh arrivals and departures, lasting till the whole bird- 

 population of these species has completed its passage. The 

 Whimbrels, while here, frequent both the mud-flats and 



