64 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



mud and the ooze, or at low water among the 

 weed-draped stones. They are emphatically beach 

 birds. Such parts of the coast that have little or 

 no beach uncovered at high water, on which they 

 may rest whilst the tide is turning, or at low water 

 on which they can seek for food, are but little 

 frequented by these Limicoline birds. Consequently 

 we find them much more abundant on the flat 

 eastern coasts of England, and some parts of the 

 southern coasts, with their miles of sand and mud 

 and wide estuaries, than on the much more rock- 

 bound north and west. 



The Plovers, with their allied forms, the Sand- 

 pipers and Snipes, and between which no very 

 pronounced distinction is known to exist, constitute 

 a well-defined group of birds, perhaps on the one 

 hand most closely allied to the Gulls, and on the 

 other hand to the Bustards. There are more than 

 two hundred species in this group, distributed over 

 most parts of the world. The Limicolae (under 

 which term we include the Plovers, Sandpipers, 

 and their allies) present considerable diversity in 

 the colour of their plumage, and in a great many 

 species this colour varies to an astonishing degree 

 with the season. The most brilliant hues are 

 assumed just prior to the breeding season ; the 

 winter plumage is much less conspicuous. To a 

 great extent this colour is protective, the brighter 

 plumage of summer in many species harmonising 

 with the inland haunts the birds then frequent : the 



