WOODCOCK, SNIPE, AND PLOVER. 279 



dress he is hardly to be distinguished from the other, 

 at least by ordinary shooters. One mark alone will 

 tell the difference at any time : the grey plover has 

 a small hind - toe, the golden plover has not. As 

 regards the breeding-place of the grey plover, re- 

 cent search has proved that the Siberian tundras, or 

 marshes, is one locality. Man has yet to discover 

 that bird Eden, where a particular section of the 

 waders in lagoons have bred undisturbed for succes- 

 sive ages ; rushing thence in countless hosts to fre- 

 quent the shores of the whole known world, giving 

 life, with their beautiful forms, lively actions, and 

 shrill voices, to most dreary places. Perhaps one 

 should call their voices penetrating rather than shrill ; 

 no matter whether the air be calm or the storm rage, 

 they can be heard. 



Let one who is a true lover of birds examine for 

 himself the wings of a woodcock, snipe, or plover, or 

 any one of the sandpipers, and he will wonder at the 

 perfection of anatomical construction which gives the 

 birds such power of making distance, as we estimate 

 it, a matter of small moment. We can judge from 

 their flight, as we see it, very imperfectly what their 

 speed is : of what it may be when they are up in the 



