NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



lously liquid notes, yet never giving one quite as much 

 as one hopes and wishes for ; and, everywhere filling 

 the whole quiet countryside with their music, skylarks 

 are flinging themselves aloft, singing as only they sing 

 for these few precious weeks of springtime. 



A ramble by the shore in September or October, too, 

 is almost certain to reward the observant lover of wild 

 bird life, even in Sussex, with a sight of some interest- 

 ing forms. Just at that time many of those far wanderers 

 which breed within the Arctic Circle, and make their 

 way south before the freezing winters of the North, 

 light upon our shores. Some few, such as the knot 

 and purple sandpiper, remain with us altogether for 

 the cold season. Those charming little Arctic birds, 

 the grey phalaropes, still, I am glad to say, touch upon 

 some parts of the Sussex coast for a brief visit in the 

 autumn, and may be noted by the observant eye. They 

 belong to the great family of Scolopacidce, or snipes, 

 but have some of the characteristics of the grebes. 

 The toes are lobed, and they are capital swimmers. 

 The phalarope females are larger and more brightly 

 coloured than the males, and appear in the breeding 

 season to assume the principal share of the courting 

 operations, even to the persecution of the at first sight 

 indifferent male. During the winter they migrate as 

 far south as India, Australia, and the coast of South 

 America — a distant pilgrimage truly ! 



We had reached the shingly ridge of a certain quiet 

 stretch of Sussex shoreland on a fine, clear September 

 day. There was a fresh breeze from the west ; the 

 blue sky was chequered with light clouds, whose dark 

 shadows cast fleeting yet lovely patches of violet and 

 purple upon the sea before us. The tide was just 

 going out and the band of brown sand gradually 

 broadened, wet and gleaming at our feet, as the sea fell. 



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