SCOLOPACID^E. 227 



be found at Pagham, Shoreham, Newhaven, and 

 in similar localities. Godwits then appear in their 

 plain grey garb, and are all equally wary and gun- 

 shy from repeated persecution ; but about the lat- 

 ter end of March fresh detachments begin to 

 arrive, the males presenting the gay ferruginous 

 nuptial attire, for like all spring visitors from 

 the continent whether land, wading, or swim- 

 ming birds they are much farther advanced 

 towards the plumage peculiar to the breeding- 

 season than those which have sojourned here dur- 

 ing the winter. The dunlins, which arrive at the 

 same time, have the black breast fully developed. 

 The curlew sandpiper or pigmy curlew now 

 suddenly appears in his beautiful summer dress, 

 and the same remark applies to many congenerous 

 birds. 



The practical observer or collector should not 

 fail to look out carefully for good specimens dur- 

 ing this brief but golden period. However regular 

 hitherto his visits to their favourite haunts, yet his 

 expeditions will have been comparatively fruitless 

 and unsatisfactory until now, and the first intima- 

 tion of the arrival of the strangers will probably be 

 the appearance on some muddy bank, at ebb-tide, 

 of a little party of confiding godwits, all in the full 

 breeding-plumage, when perhaps not a single bird 

 of the same species had occurred on any pre- 



