other bird impossible. One is also sure to find the ringed- 
plover. A little bird with a pale brown back, a white fore- 
head with a bar of black above it, black face, and a black 
band at the base of the white neck. The beak is short, and 
the legs yellow. The wings, in flight, are long and pointed, 
and marked with a white bar. The outer tail-feathers, 
spread during flight, are also white. It runs rapidly about, 
swiftly picking up sand-hoppers and other small creatures, 
and always travels in small flocks. Commonly associated 
with the ringed-plover one finds the dunlin, grey above, 
white below, and with a long, black beak. The peculiarities 
of its flight, and its strikingly different summer dress have 
already been described here. Sometimes you will meet with 
the common sandpiper; a small bird, about the size of a 
thrush, who runs on rather long legs, and constantly flicks 
his tail up and down. His coloration is of a bronzy-brown, 
above, more or less conspicuously marked with darker bars, 
and white below. In flight he shows long, pointed wings, 
and a tail broadly tipped with white and barred with black. 
More often you will find him on the banks of streams. His 
cousin, the redshank, a much larger bird, has already been 
described here in regard to his spring love-making. Later 
in the year he may be distinguished, when on the wing, by 
the large white rump patch, white secondaries, white tail, 
barred with black, long, pointed wings, and long red legs. 
246 
