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is completed. When the young birds do arrive, it seldom happens 

 that any old birds accompany them, or come at the same time- 

 Both old and young, when they first arrive, are easily approached. 

 The young do not moult their quills till autumn in the following 

 year, like all this tribe of birds. On looking over my notes I find 

 the following : " Feb. 26, saw several Sanderlings on the sands ; 

 they were busily engaged feeding ; the wind strong, which made 

 the sea break heavily on the shore, and a quantity of white foam 

 was being driven by it along the sands. The Sanderlings wer e 

 wading amongst the waves which were breaking on the shore' 

 and as it was a bright day, unless you observed they were moving 

 against the wind and in different directions, the whiteness of 

 their plumage made it difficult to distinguish them from the foam- 

 The rapidity of their movements is astonishing : no sooner had a 

 wave broken, than in they ran as far as they could, and picked 

 up such food as the wave brought up ; they would then follow 

 the receding wave quite back, till they met the next just going 

 to break, when they retired so as not to be too deep in the water. 

 Probably the whiteness of their plumage is intended for their 

 protection." Audubon mentions the Sanderling as occurring on 

 the coast of America in the same manner as it appears here, but 

 he did not find it breeding. In Capt. Sabine's account of the birds 

 seen at the North Georgian Islands, during Parry's voyage, the 

 Sanderling is mentioned as breeding there abundantly. Surely 

 we cannot be dependant upon America for those which come to us ; 

 there must be some breeding places in the north-east of Europe 

 from which our shores are peopled. I have seen the Common 

 Sandpiper swim and dive, and also the Redshank when wounded ; 

 and on one occasion, some years ago, when with a friend on a 

 mossy place where Dunlins were breeding, a violent thunder-storm 

 came on ; we were close to some of their nests, which we afterwards 

 found. Though the place was pretty dry when the rain com- 

 menced, it rained so heavily that the spaces between the small 

 hillocks of heather and moss became running water, across which 

 the Dunlins swam with ease, entering the water without raising 

 their wings. One would suppose birds of the size and shape of 



