288 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



spring the head, neck, upper part of the breast, 

 and shoulders, are black and white, the back and 

 wings chestnut colour and black, the rump white, 

 banded with black, the legs and feet orange-red. 

 In winter the chestnut colour is less conspicuous, 

 and the colour of the legs less vivid. It is fairly 

 common on most of our coasts, more so, perhaps, 

 in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, etc., though it is 

 to be found more or less in all those localities which 

 furnish it with suitable feeding-grounds. The Rev. 

 C. A. Johns refers to an account which appeared 

 in vol. ix. of the Zoologist, of the successful 

 efforts of two of these little birds to turn over the 

 dead body of a codfish, nearly three and a half 

 feet in length, which had been imbedded in the 

 sand to the depth of some two inches. Another 

 author states that it is easily tamed. It is doubt- 

 less very intelligent, as may be gathered from the 

 foregoing account, for, though excessively power- 

 ful for its size, it must be able to utilize its strength 

 to the best advantage. 



