Song Birds and Water Fowl 
less numbered at least from two to three 
thousand. ‘The passage of such a host, by so 
mysterious an impulse, is an exhibition of one 
of the ‘‘ forces of nature’’ that one does not 
often have the opportunity to witness. A 
bird’s-eye view of such a silent procession, fifty 
miles in length, swiftly winding its way along 
the sinuosities of the Atlantic coast, from the 
Southern States to British America, would cer- 
tainly be an interesting spectacle. Afterward, 
a ‘‘wave’’ of ducks passed by, not as large in 
the aggregate as that of the gulls; but the indi- 
vidual flocks, numbering from fifty to over a 
hundred each, were much larger and more pict- 
uresque. While gulls are much more aérial, I 
observed that the ducks flew very much higher 
in migration. 
Along the shore, too, were sandpipers. The 
principal feature that distinguishes them from 
plovers is the long bill, by which they can 
not only obtain food in shallow water, but can 
probe for it in sand or soil, like woodcock 
and all long-billed species; which shows the 
extreme sensitiveness of what appears to be a 
mere dead, horny protuberance, and somewhat 
analogous in its functions to the teeth of 
other animals. I could not ‘‘specify’’ this 
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