PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 65 



duller hues characteristic of winter assimilating 

 with the barer ground the sands and mud-flats. 

 It is worthy of remark that the species which do 

 not present this great diversity in their seasonable 

 change of plumage such as the Snipes and Wood- 

 cocks confine themselves to haunts clothed with 

 vegetation all the year round ; or as in the case of 

 the Ringed Plovers to bare sands and shingles. 

 In their moulting the Limicolae are most interesting. 

 It is impossible to enter very fully into the details 

 of this function in the present volume, nor is it 

 necessary, for the purpose of this study of marine 

 bird-life, to do so. A few of the most salient facts, 

 however, may be mentioned. The young of all 

 Limicoline birds are hatched covered with down, 

 and are able to run soon after their breaking from 

 the shell. They consequently spend little time in 

 the nest, after they are hatched. This down varies 

 considerably not only in the pattern of the colour, 

 but in the colour itself. Some of these chicks, or 

 young in down, are beautifully striped or spotted ; 

 others are sprinkled or dusted with darker or lighter 

 tints than the general colour. In all, however, the 

 colours are eminently protective ones, and harmonise 

 so closely with the hues of surrounding objects that 

 discovery is difficult ; more especially so as the 

 chicks possess the habit of crouching motionless to 

 the ground when menaced by danger. The first 

 plumage of the young bird in the present order, 

 approaches more or less closely in colour that of 



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