THE SHORE PATROL 



209 



the far North through the interior of the United States. The 

 first flight off New England seems to occur about the last ten 

 days of August, and is only of adult birds. The young do not 

 reach us till about the middle of September. The young 

 Golden Plovers used to frequent, in late September, the 

 " Back-Bay marshes " of Boston, which I then considered 

 a splendid plover ground ; but this is a thing of the past. 



TURNSTONES. "THE BIRDS FED UP NEAR TO ME" 



The desire to see more of the shore-birds, rapidly becom- 

 ing scarce on the New England coast, started me off, a few 

 seasons ago, about the middle of August, along the eastern 

 coast of Nova Scotia. I kept travelling until I found an 

 ideal spot, fine lonely sand-beaches pounded by the surf, 

 extensive salt marshes back of them, and an inlet whose 

 sand-flats furnished unsurpassed feeding-ground for hosts of 

 shore-birds. The very first birds I saw were four Hudsonian 

 Curlews walking about in their sedate fashion in the dry 

 sand and grass above the beach on which were sporting 

 flocks of smaller shore-birds. I had seen enough to convince 



