198 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE SHORE BIRDS. 



WHILE, in considering the habits of the many 

 birds to which we have referred, we have 

 been as much about the wet meadows as the dry 

 fields, and along the river-shore as in the upland 

 woods, nevertheless, the birds that have been brought 

 to notice were essentially land birds with the excep- 

 tion of the kingfisher, which we can only think of as 

 associated with the quiet mill-pond or some little 

 creek where the silvery minnows flash in the ripples. 

 But there are birds that can only exist by the water, 

 or at least depend upon it for their food-supply. 

 Every land bird can live on the river-shore or near 

 the ocean, but not all " shore birds" can wander from 

 the watery wastes, or exchange the dusky avenues of 

 a forest for the swamps, the marsh, the treacherous 

 quicksands, and the banks of the river. 



The shore birds of the United States are divided 

 into six groups or families, some of very few and 

 others of many species, making sixty-five in all. The 

 greater number of these are birds of the sea-shore, 

 some seldom leaving it, and others only at certain 

 seasons, when they follow up the main watercourses 

 for long distances, and, leaving them, pass to the 

 shores of our most insignificant creeks. But these 



