194 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



and stouter body make him seem a bit out of 

 place among the trim figures of his companions. 

 Even the turn-stone seems a trifle lonely for the 

 same reason, though his pure jet and snowy 

 white with slight tinges of reddish brown show 

 the shore bird beyond mistake. Among these 

 the stilt's lithe figure moves with dignity on its 

 long legs, and over them with tender whistle 

 plover whiz until in places every foot of the 

 shore seems alive at the ebbing of the tide. 

 The birds are harder then to reach than at flood- 

 tide, when out on the grassy flats and hugging 

 the dry shores; but to see life as now rarely 

 seen elsewhere, ebb-tide on these flats is the 

 time. 



Of birds that love the sounding shore the 

 black brant of the Pacific coast is prince. This 

 is not the sea-brant of the Atlantic coast, but 

 bernicula nigricans, an entirely different bird, 

 and the finest and most gamy of American 

 water-fowl. It is found in great abundance on 

 the upper Pacific coast, breeding far in the 

 northern wilds. Those that come far south in 

 winter are very particular. Most all the bays 

 and inlets of the California coast they skip en- 



