The Zoologist — October, 1873. 3721 



scattered at first; but suspecting something was wrong, they ran 

 together in a cluster, and stood looking towards my hiding-place : 

 a well-directed shot at this range would have half exterminated 

 them. 



They appeared birds of the year, having the same buff-coloured 

 wash on the lower neck and breast which we find in the young 

 knot. There was a rather conspicuous lightish streak over the 

 eye ; the bill was long and decurved at the end, but not more so 

 than in the dunlin ; they stood, however, higher, and looked a 

 larger bird than this species. Some on the outside kept rising 

 and flying over the heads of those in the rear, showing at the same 

 time their most characteristic distinctive mark, the white upper 

 tail-coverts. 



In their habits they more nearly resemble the reeve than the 

 dunlin : they run rapidly with the tibio-larsal joints much bent, 

 and they have the same habit which we see in the reeve of raising 

 themselves, stretching their necks, and peering about when they 

 suspect danger. Their flight also is very reeve-like, their long 

 pointed wings increasing the resemblance. They fly in a lump or 

 cluster, close together, sometimes rising to a considerable height, 

 and then again sweeping or skimming the ground, wheeling rapidly 

 round the pasture and dashing up to windward, they will alight 

 suddenly and commence feeding. 



Later in the day I returned to this field with my gun, but did 

 not get a shot: they had then got mixed up with a flock of peewits, 

 rising and going off to the coast together. 



September 1st. Again on the look out for the curlew sand- 

 pipers, but did not find them in this field. In a marsh about half 

 a mile further inland there were about fifteen or twenty in company 

 with peewits, and feeding with them. I got a long shot at three, 

 dropping one ; the survivors, instead of making off, continued to 

 fly round and hover (winnowing the air like kestrels) above their 

 wounded mate, and uttering the most piteous little bird-wail I ever 

 heard. It was wonderful to see such an exhibition of feeling and 

 sympathy on the part of these little creatures. In an adjoining 

 field, a very bare summer-eaten clover, there were many more 

 foraging in company with curlews and peewits; these latter rose, 

 leading the sandpipers with them. There were probably from one 

 hundred to a hundred and fifty ; these collected into two flocks, 

 flying round in a wide circle, and did not offer a shot. 



