284 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 
so far as concerns migration, are those to which our 
second chapter is devoted, viz., the Plovers and the 
Sandpipers. Perhaps in this group more than in 
any other, the habit of migration is most strongly 
displayed. The journeys some of these birds 
undertake in spring and autumn can only be 
described as marvellous. The Sanderling breeds in 
the North Polar Basin, and in winter is found in 
the Malay Archipelago, in the Cape Colony, and 
in Patagonia; the Knot has a similar distribution 
in summer, but in winter visits such enormously 
remote localities as Australia, New Zealand, the 
Cape Colony, and Brazil! Well may these little 
birds excite exceptional feelings of interest in the 
observer who watches them, each recurring season, 
running blithely over the sands and the mud-flats, 
when he remembers the distances they travel. 
But migration on the coast is by no means con- 
fined to the birds that habitually reside upon it. 
All the migratory species that dwell in inland 
districts must pass the coast on their annual 
journeys in spring and autumn. At these seasons, 
in suitable districts (of which we have already 
indicated the most favourable for observation), birds 
may be watched day after day, and week after 
week, entering our area to render summer glad 
with their cheerful presence, passing along our 
shores to yet more distant destinations, or depart- 
ing in autumn for warmer lands and sunnier skies. 
Many of these birds, of course, enter our islands 
