64 BRITISH) SHEA TBIRDS: 
mud and the ooze, or at low water among the 
weed-draped stones. They are emphatically beach 
birds. Such parts of the coast that have little or 
no beach uncovered at high water, on which they 
may rest whilst the tide is turning, or at low water 
on which they can seek for food, are but little 
frequented by these Limicoline birds. Consequently 
we find them much more abundant on the flat 
eastern coasts of England, and some parts of the 
southern coasts, with their miles of sand and mud 
and wide estuaries, than on the much more rock- 
bound north and west. 
The Plovers, with their allied forms, the Sand- 
pipers and Snipes, and between which no very 
pronounced distinction is known to exist, constitute 
a well-defined group of birds, perhaps on the one 
hand most closely allied to the Gulls, and on the 
other hand to the Bustards. There are more than 
two hundred species in this group, distributed over 
most parts of the world. The Limicole (under 
which term we include the Plovers, Sandpipers, 
and their allies) present considerable diversity in 
the colour of their plumage, and in a great many 
species this colour varies to an astonishing degree 
with the season. The most brilliant hues are 
assumed just prior to the breeding season; the 
winter plumage is much less conspicuous. To a 
great extent this colour is protective, the brighter 
plumage of summer in many species harmonising 
with the inland haunts the birds then frequent: the 
ee 7 
