118 



BIRDS OF NOUFOLK. 



not imfreqnently seen consorting with dunlins, but when 

 in small or large flocks they invariably feed by them- 

 selves. 



With the sanderling, as with the knots and god- 

 wits, it is only by comparing a large number of birds 

 killed at different dates, and of which the sex in each 

 instance has been accurately ascertained by dissection, 

 that one can arrive at any satisfactory conclusion 

 as to the change of plumage from the winter to the 

 summer dress, or the differences observable between 

 males and females. It was with this view that I collected 

 specimens at Hunstanton in 1863, whenever opportunity 

 ofiered, between the 19th of May and the 8th of June, 

 and an examination of this very beautiful series of skins, 

 fourteen in number, presents many points of interest. 

 From the late period of my visit, of course even 

 the earliest birds procured had nearly completed their 

 change of plumage, but it is remarkable that, in both 

 sexes, one or two examples killed in the middle of May 

 were as perfect and as rich in colour as any I obtained in 

 June, a circumstance which I have since observed, at 

 the same season, in the bar-tailed godwits (Limosa rufa), 

 and from which I infer that very old birds or those 

 of extremely vigorous constitutions acquire their full 

 summer dress sooner than others. This is particularly 

 noticeable in a male and female both shot on the 26th 

 of May, the male being by far the darkest bird in the 

 collection, and the female showing quite as much red 

 on the fore part of the throat and neck as in any of the 

 males killed in June. Two other females shot on the 

 same day, young birds most probably of the previous 

 year, are in the j^rettiest state of change possible, the 

 upper portions of their plumage mottled with red, white, 

 and black, with here and there a feather still pure grey, 

 and their throats sprinkled with dark spots on a white 

 ground, with scarcely a tinge of red yet visible. Again, 



