204 
WILD WINGS 
thick grass of the meadows, and certain others are partial to 
marshes, dry pasture, or prairie, the decided iDreference of the 
Order is for the margin where land and water meet, whether 
it be bv ocean, river, lake, or pool. They are waders by nature 
and generally by practice, and there is not one but what at 
times dabl)les in margins, that, unlike stmie margins in human 
affairs, provide an unfailing sustenance, with their abounding 
forms of small animal life. 
Many a sojourn by the sea has been brightened for me by 
the presence of the shore-birds. They are nature’s contribu¬ 
tion toward ftlling a vacuum. Every other sort of locality — 
forest, j:)asture, j^rairie, mountain, swamp, and ocean — has 
its peculiar birds, and so has, therefore, the shore. I love 
to sit on the beach and see a ffock of sandpipers racing 
nimbly after the retreating wave, and back again when it 
returns, pattering along the strand and picking uj:) the tiny 
bits of food, invisible to coarse human sight. They are not 
ordinarily very shy, and, by hiding a little, or sitting quite 
still, I have often watched their pretty motions from within 
a few feet. Then, perhaps, they see that they are observed, 
and off thev go with quick, darting flight and mellow twit¬ 
terings, to take a circuit out over the water, and return to 
alight a few hundred feet farther along. Though small, 
thev are strong of flight, and that they seek out the distant, 
mysterious North for their nesting adds to their charm. 
A few species spend their summers with us and raise 
their young, but, possessing vigorous powers of flight, and 
sought after by man for food, most of them wing their way 
to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, passing hurriedly by us in 
the spring, and returning more leisurely in the fall. On the 
Atlantic coast north of Virginia comparatively few are now 
found in the spring flight, during May; the great majority 
pass us out to sea or go up through the interior, notably 
