234 THE BIUDS OF SUSSEX. 



margin of the sea-sliore. close to the advauchig waves. It 

 is migratory^ making its first appearance in April, in small 

 numbers, whicli continue to inci'ease throughout that month 

 and the next. 



Many, even then, show slight indication of the change 

 from the winter to the summer plumage, and by the cud 

 of June the main body have entirely assumed it, when they 

 depart for the breeding-season, Avith the exception of a few 

 which remain throughout the year, frequenting the open 

 coast. During the whole of May large flights pass eastward, 

 following the line of coast, five or six miles out at sea. On 

 the approach of a heavy gale they leave the shore and betake 

 themselves to the mud of the harbours and rivers as high 

 as the salt water flows, and are very seldom found further 

 inland. When feeding on the mud they assemble in vast 

 flocks, and are very easily approached, and with a punt-gun 

 as many as sixty have been obtained at a single shot. As 

 soon as the weather moderates they return to their feeding- 

 places on the beach and sands. They are at times very 

 numerous about Shoreham, and were so at Pagham before 

 the mud flats were reclaimed; Rye Harbour was another 

 favourite resort. They feed on small bivalves and other 

 shellfish, and were formerly fattened for the table on bread 

 and milk. In the breeding-season they retire to the Arctic 

 Regions, where Parry's Expedition found them breeding 

 numerously on what were then called the North Georgian, 

 but are now known as the Parry Islands, and again, on July 

 30th, 1876, an old bird, accompanied by three nestlings, 

 was obtained on the border of a small lake not far from 

 H.M.S. '^ Alert.'' The old bird proved to be a male ; its 

 stomacb and those of the young were filled with insects 

 {vide 'Ibis,' 1877, p. 407), and, according to Yarrell 

 (vol. iii. p. 416), Mr. 11. Chichester Hart, natui-alist to 

 H.M.S. " Discovery," obtained, in 81° 44' N.L., a brood 



