356 THE PLOVER. 



those minute bivalves already described. As the succeeding 

 wave returns, it bears the whole of them before it in one 

 crowded line ; then is the moment seized by the experienced 

 gunner to sweep them in flank, with his destructive shot. 

 The flying survivors, after a few aerial meanders, again alight, 

 and pursue their usual avocation, as busily and unconcern- 

 edly as before. These birds are most numerous on extensive 

 sandy beaches in front of the ocean. Among rocks, marshes, 

 or stones covered with sea-weed, they seldom make their ap- 

 pearance. 



There is another species called the Ruddy Plover (C. Ru- 

 bidus.) which is frequently found in company with the 

 Sanderling, which, except in color, it very much resembles. 

 It is generally seen on the seacoast of New Jersey in May and 

 October, on its way to and from its breeding place in the north. 

 It runs with great activity along the edge of the flowing or re- 

 treating waves, on the sands, picking up the small bivalve shell- 

 fish, which supply so many multitudes of the Plover and Sand- 

 piper tribes. 



I should not be surprised if the present species turn out 

 hereafter to be the Sanderling itself, in a different dress. Of 

 many scores which I examined, scarce two were alike ; in 

 some the plumage of the back was almost plain ; m others 

 the black plumage was just shooting out. This was in the 

 month of October. Naturalists, however, have considered it 

 as a separate species ; but have given us no further particu- 

 lars, than that "in Hudson's Bay it is known by the name of 

 Mistchaychekiskaweshish," a piece of information certainly 

 very instructive ! 



