BY SANDY SHORES. 245 



flocks, their silvery wings gleaming and sparkling 

 in the sunshine, as the little creatures manoeuvre 

 above the muds ; with the GOLDEN PLOVER, all 

 trace of his black belly gone, conspicuous now in 

 white and shining under plumage, although he 

 still retains the brazen spots of his wedding days. 

 Here are all our little friends of the hills ; yet, 

 stay, not all, for the DOTTERELS are gone to 

 Africa, the PHALAROPES have taken their southern 

 flight away. But with autumn's advent many 

 stranger birds appear upon the coast birds that 

 do not breed with us. With a brief notice of 

 the most prominent species and those of most 

 regular appearance, we will bring our ramble to 

 a close. 



One of the most remarkable of these birds 

 is the KNOT (Tringa canutus], a species whose 

 breeding-place is in the highest latitudes of known 

 land. The young birds begin to arrive on our 

 coasts as early as the first week in August, but 

 the great flocks, including the old birds, appear 

 during September and October. The Knot in 

 its winter plumage has most of the upper parts 

 grayish brown, and the underparts nearly 

 uniform pure white. On our coasts the Knot 

 is eminently gregarious ; and in flocks it may 

 be seen running about the muds and sands, 

 searching for the worms, crustaceans, and small 

 mollusks that compose its winter fare. Some- 

 times mingled with the Knots and Dunlins, we 

 may come across one or two CURLEW SAND- 

 PIPERS (T. sitbarquata). In colour it is much 

 like the Knot, only the rump as well as the 

 underparts is pure white ; and the bird is much 

 the smaller, being about the size of a Dunlin. 



