60 Bird- Life in Labrador. 



RUDDY PLOVER SANDERLING 



Calidris arenaria. (L.) IL,L,K;. 



THIS is another characteristic bird of the Labrador marshy 

 and sandy low tide flats, though, the specimens that I saw 

 preferred mostly the sandy beaches at high tide. They are 

 seen everywhere along the coast, though they are much more 

 wild than the usual run of beach birds, and generally fly in 

 much smaller flocks which do not seem so readily to break up 

 into families or flocks, but fly closer together and keep to- 

 gether most of it not all the time. Now and then a solitary 

 individual would be seen flying or picking up food in company 

 with many of the other species of sandpipers, but for the most 

 part they were alone. I saw numbers of them during my stay 

 on the coast, but seldom many at a time,- They were very 

 wild and hard to approach, and kept quite close together in 

 small flocks of from ten to thirty ; their flight is wilder and 

 their call different from that of the other birds with which 

 they associated. I found them very plum]) and fat, and, be- 

 ing larger, much better eating than the majority of the small 

 shore birds. 



HUDSONIAN GODWIT 



Limoxa hcemastica. (LiNN., 1758). 



THURSDAY, September 10, was a red-letter day to me in the 

 bird line. Referring to the notes again they say : To-day I 

 succeeded in obtaining a specimen of the Limowt /Knnastica, 

 the Hudsonian or black-tailed god wit, also called the ring- 

 tailed marlin. It is a rare bird even in these regions, and 

 was the only one I obtained on the coast. It was at the time 

 flying rather high up in the air and with the irregular flight of 

 the spotted sandpiper. Its note, uttered while in the air 

 sounded more like the sqeak of a mouse than any thing else I 

 can name. From its rarity I give the dimensions as I took 



