^ 





SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS 



CHAPTER XII 



THE SHORE PATROL 



There is a Power whose care 

 Teaches thy way along that pathless coast. 



BRYANT. 



A certain seasons of the year our shores bordering on 

 ocean and great lake are carefully patrolled by the 

 crews of the Government Life-saving Service. And 

 there are seasons, too, when a feathered host is on patrol, 

 suffering few castaways of a certain class to be long 

 neglected. Science has a concise and suggestive name for 

 them, Limicolae, dwellers by the shore. It is a varied and 

 numerous company, represented by forty species in eastern 

 North America. Though one of these, the Woodcock, prefers 

 the swampy thickets, and his cousin, Wilson's Snipe, the 



