RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 127 



Circle, and even breeding in that remotest of lands, the ever- 

 wintry shores of Melville Peninsula. It likewise inhabits 

 Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Alps of Siberia, and the 

 coasts of the Caspian. In the southern hemisphere it some- 

 times even wanders as far as the Cape of Good Hope, and is 

 found in Jamaica, other of the West India islands, and Cayenne. 

 In the autumn it is seen around Vera Cruz, and, with other 

 Sandpipers probably, is exposed for sale in the markets of Mex- 

 ico. At the same time many, as the Purres, in their winter 

 dress, remain through the greatest part of the winter within the 

 milder limits of the Union, frequenting at times in great num- 

 bers the coasts of both Carolinas during the month of Feb- 

 ruary, flitting probably to and fro with every vacillating 

 change of temperature, being naturally vagabond and nowhere 

 fixed for any considerable time until their arrival at the 

 Ultima Thule of the continent, where they barely stay long 

 enough to rear a single brood, destined, as soon as they are 

 able, to wander with the rest and swell the aerial host, whose 

 sole delight, like the untiring Petrels of the storm or the 

 ambitious Albatross, is to be in perpetual action, and are 

 thus, by their associated numbers, obliged perpetually to rove 

 in quest of their transient, periodical, and varying prey. 



In the Middle States the Dunlins arrive on their way to the^ 

 North in April and May, and in September and October they 

 are again seen pursuing the route to their hibernal retreat in 

 the South. At these times they often mingle with the flocks 

 of other strand birds, from which they are distinguishable by 

 the rufous color of their upper plumage. They frequent the 

 muddy flats and shores of the salt-marshes at the recess of the 

 tide, feeding on the worms, insects, and minute shell-fish 

 which such places generally afford. They are also very nimble 

 on the strand, frequenting the sandy beaches which bound the 

 ocean, running, and gleaning up their prey with great activity 

 on the reflux of the waves. 



These birds when in their hibernal dress are seen, in con- 

 junction with several species, sometimes collecting together in 

 such flocks as to seem at a distance like a moving cloud, vary- 



