THE SANDERLING. 127 



they become saturated with water up to the height to which 

 that ascends. The flowing tide bears upon its forward 

 margin a number of exceedingly small animals which are 

 detached from the bottom when the ebb carries the miry 

 conflict between sea and shore to the greatest distance sea- 

 ward ; and, as the tide rises, these are brought towards the 

 shore, and partially left, on the reflux of each of the succes- 

 sive waves in which the tide, in most states of the weather, 

 advances. A part of the water in which they are borne 

 shoreward, oozes into the sand, leaving those minute crea- 

 tures entangled between the particles as in a net. Worms 

 and other larger animals than the prey, though still but 

 small in their absolute size, come up at the signal, and feed 

 upon the more minute ones which the sand catches; and the 

 birds run along the margin of the water, and in their turn 

 pick up the preyers. 



During the greater part of the year, sanderlings appear in 

 small flocks. These flocks are most numerous and also 

 largest in the autumn and winter, though a few linger till 

 the summer is far advanced, and probably all the season. 

 They are met with on the beaches upon all parts of the 

 coasts ; but they either migrate to breed, or they remain in 

 close concealment during that time. 



The latter may be the case, although the eggs have not 

 been seen, for the birds are not very numerous ; and those 

 that are seen along the coverts when they flock would pro- 

 bably not make one nest to the square mile of the flat wastes 

 along the sea. In these wastes, too, there are often shallow 

 pools of salt or of fresh water, left by high tides and rain 

 floods in those hollows that have been rendered water-tight 

 by oozy matters carried into them and deposited ; and those 

 pools may probably supply both hiding and food to these 

 (and to some other) birds. 



The extreme rarity of the dotterel's eggs compared with 



