CURLEW AND SANDPIPER 175 



dried-up ground all round them. A living, moving 

 floor and a sounding one as well, and the sound too 

 was amazing. It was like the sea, but unlike it in 

 character since it was not deep; it was more like the 

 wind blowing, let us say, on thousands of tight- 

 drawn wires of varying thicknesses, vibrating them 

 to shrill sound, a mass and tangle of ten thousand 

 sounds. But it is indescribable and unimaginable. 



Then I would put the birds up to enjoy the different 

 sound of their rushing wings mingled with that of their 

 cries, also the sight of them like a great cloud in the 

 sky above me, casting a deep shadow on the earth. 



The golden plover was but one of many equally 

 if not more abundant species in its own as well as 

 other orders, although they did not congregate in 

 such astonishing numbers. On their arrival on the 

 pampas they were invariably accompanied by two 

 other species, the Eskimo curlew and the buff- 

 breasted sandpiper. These all fed in company on the 

 moist lands, but by-and-by the curlews passed on to 

 more southern districts, leaving their companions 

 behind, and the buff-breasted sandpipers were then 

 seen to be much less numerous than the plover, about 

 one bird to ten. 



Now one autumn, when most of the emigrants to 

 the Arctic breeding-grounds had already gone, I 

 witnessed a great migration of this very species — 

 this beautiful sandpiper with the habits of a plover. 

 The birds appeared in flocks of about one to two 

 or three hundred, flying low and very swiftly due 

 north, flock succeeding flock at intervals of about 



