164 NATURAL HISTORY. 



await the advent of the sea, which will gradually spread itself over the waste of black mud which they 

 have been probing for their food during the livelong night, and drive them foot by foot to the shelter 

 under the banks of the harbour or out on the sea-beach. A small bird flies off with a thin piping 

 whistle from the muddy bank of the main channel, and hugs the margin of the latter till it disappears 

 round the nearest bend. This is the Common Sandpiper, or Summer Snipe ( Tringoides hypoleucua), 

 returning from his breeding quarters farther north, and now on his way to his winter home in far 



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South Africa. It is not only on the sea-shore that we may meet with this elegant little species, for in 

 the spring it may be seen along the banks of our rivers and lakes in company with its mate ; while in 

 the autumn the old birds with their family are again observed on the river banks or on its sandy sides, 

 now returning to the sea-coast, where they no longer keep so well together, but ai'e found in scattered 

 parties of two or three, generally very shy and wary. 



Those fairy-like birds on ahead, flitting at a little distance above the waves, and every now and 

 then dipping into the water with a splash, are little Terns (Sternula minuta), but the eye of the 

 ornithologist is more forcibly attracted by three or four dark objects which stand out against the 

 margin of the sand-bank some three hundred yards ahead. Godwits they are ; and already the long, 

 straight beak can be distinguished as the birds sit with their head resting on their buff-coloured breasts. 

 They are evidently uneasy at the approach of the skiff, and evince their fear by taking short runs a 

 little in advance. At length they stop, glance for a moment, and take flight for the shingly beach in 

 the distance, but too late to escape a well-directed double-barrel, which brings down three of their 

 number. Placing them under the side of the boat, the sportsman satisfies himself, by a glance at the 

 banded tail, that they are the Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica), and not the rarer Black-tailed 

 Godwit (L. cegocephahis), which also comes to England. The boat is now steered for a shingly 

 island which is evidently not about to be covered by high water, and here, ensconced behind a large heap 

 of seaweed which commands a spit of sand and shingle jutting out into the harbour, the two gunners 



