THE WADERS 



401 



smaller and far scarcer black-legged 

 Kentish Plover, which much resembles 

 them, though it lacks their perfect black 

 coUar ; nor with the larger, but equally 

 rare, ]\Ioorland Dotterel, with black and 

 white banded chestnut breast and belly — 

 little trips of this bird used 

 regularly to \-isit our eastern 

 coastline live - and - twenty 

 years ago at turnip-sowing 

 time, and old books allude 

 to them as the " foolish Dot- 

 terel " — the tamest of all 

 the Plover tribe. 



A much larger and ubi- 

 quitous shore bird is the 

 black and white 03'ster 

 Catcher or Sea Pie, a strik- 

 ingly handsome bird with 

 long, straight, orange bill 

 and pale pink legs, which 

 loves the vicinity of limpet- 

 clad rocks, or mussel banks, 

 where the receding tide 

 leaves bare a large extent 

 of foreshore. In flight its 

 pied plumage is strikingly 

 displayed as it skims the 

 surface of the water — not 

 in " lumps " as the manner 

 of most shore birds is, but 

 in large or small linear par- 

 ties, which follow the leader 

 at equal distances apart. In 

 the northern counties, where 

 this species most delights to breed, the 

 Oyster Catchers follow the larger rivers 

 far inland, and may sometimes be 

 observed resting on grass or cornfields 

 awaiting the turn of the tide for their 

 feeding grounds to be again exposed. 



The Turnstone arrives on our coasts in 

 small trips during August, and is perhaps 

 the most attractively coloured, in adult 

 dress, of all our British shore birds, and 

 at once attracts the attention of the coast- 

 frequenting naturalist. It is about nine 

 inches in length, black and chestnut 

 colour above, with black breast, white 

 belly and rump, the crown of the head red- 

 dish white with longitudinal black mark- 

 ings, black beak and orange-coloured feet. 

 Like the Grey Plover, it runs quickly, 

 and is difficult of approach, for it is always 

 on the alert, in spite of its being con- 

 stantly employed in turning over stones, 



seaweed, shells, or high-water mark 

 debris in search of sandhoppers and such 

 small fry. 



The Plovers may be known from the 

 Sandpipers by their rounder heads and 

 shorter beaks, and by their having 



PiuitOL^rafli by jf. T. Xe^vtruin, Berkhampsuad. 



YOUNG PLOVER. 



but three toes. The Sanderling may be 

 taken as the connecting link between the 

 two families. It has no hind toe, the legs 

 and beak are black, and the beak is short 

 compared with that of the Sandpipers, 

 and straight. It is a regular visitor in 

 spring and autumn, while a few remain 

 for the winter. In general appearance 

 it looks very much like a very light- 

 coloured Dunlin, the commonest of our 

 smaller shore birds, a large flock of which, 

 turning and wheeling in the sunlight, 

 appears at one moment as a dark, and the 

 next moment as a silvery white, cloud, as 

 they suddenly and simultaneously jiresent 

 either the upper or under surface of their 

 bodies to view. In adult summer plumage 

 the two birds differ greatly ; the Dunlin, 

 which remains to breed in our moorland 

 and mountainous districts, has then rich 

 chestnut markings on the l)ack. and a 



