A Bay on the Bay Shore, 



dress that a close inspection of the toes 

 is necessary to distinguish them. As 

 its name implies the former species 

 has a web at the base of the toes which 

 is lacking in the latter bird. However, 

 the little fellows are simply enough at- 

 tired, with snow-white breasts and backs 

 of gray, mottled and streaked with dusky. 

 In the springtime, just as they start on 

 their long journey northward to their 

 breeding-ground, they may sometimes 

 be found in their more showy plumage 

 of black, rufous, gray and white. 



Another sandpiper is soon noticed 

 upon the mud-flats not far away, which 

 may be easily distinguished from the 

 preceding bird by its considerably larger 

 size. It is variously known as the 

 American dunlin, the red-backed, or 

 black-bellied sandpiper, although these 

 two latter names are certainly not ap- 

 plicable to the bird as we see it in win- 

 ter plumage, when it is not very differ- 

 ent in color from the two smaller 

 species. These three sandpipers are 



95 



