78 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



With the present species we exhaust the number of 

 Limicoline birds that nest upon the shore in the 

 British Islands. All the other species that make our 

 sands and mud-flats their winter home, or their place 

 of call during their spring and autumn migrations, 

 breed away from the actual beach on marshes and 

 moors and uplands, or do not rear their young at all 

 within our area. Closely associated with most of 

 these birds are the fascinating problems of Migration. 

 We miss the feathered hosts from sand and mud-flat 

 as the spring advances ; we note the fleeting appear- 

 ance of others along the shore bound to far away 

 northern haunts : and then long before the first 

 faint signs of autumn are apparent these migrant 

 birds begin to return, and imbue the wild lone 

 slob-lands and shingles with life. To and fro with 

 each recurring spring and autumn, the stream of 

 avine life flows and ebbs ; by day and by night 

 the feathery tides press on, calling forth wonder 

 from the least observant, filling more thoughtful 

 minds with the complexity and the mystery of it all. 

 We have not space to deal here with this grand 

 avine movement ; but, content with this passing 

 allusion to it, pass on to a study of the other 

 feathered dwellers by the sea. (Conf. /. 281). 



It is rather remarkable how few species of 

 Limicoline birds breed on the British coast-line. 

 Not a single Sandpiper nor Snipe does so, and but 

 two or three Plovers, as we have already seen. 

 So far as summer is concerned, these wading birds 



