78 BRITISH SEA ‘BIRDS. 
With the present species we exhaust the number of 
Limicoline birds that nest upon the shore in the 
British Islands. All the other species that make our 
sands and mud-flats their winter home, or their place 
of call during their spring and autumn migrations, 
breed away from the actual beach on marshes and 
moors and uplands, or do not rear their young at all 
within our area. Closely associated with most of 
these birds are the fascinating problems of Migration. 
We miss the feathered hosts from sand and mud-flat 
as the spring advances; we note the fleeting appear- 
ance of others along the shore bound to far away 
northern haunts: and then long before the first 
faint signs of autumn are apparent these migrant 
birds begin to return, and imbue the wild lone 
slob-lands and shingles with life. To and fro with 
each recurring spring and autumn, the stream of 
avine life flows and ebbs; by day and by night 
the feathery tides press on, calling forth wonder 
from the least observant, filling more thoughtful 
minds with the complexity and the mystery of it all. 
We have not space to deal here with this grand 
avine movement; but, content with this passing 
allusion to it, pass on to a study of the other 
feathered dwellers by the sea. (Conf. J. 281). 
It is rather remarkable how few species of 
Limicoline birds breed on the British coast-line. 
Not a single Sandpiper nor Snipe does so, and but 
two or three Plovers, as we have already seen. 
So far as summer is concerned, these wading birds 
