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, axe 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 smaU 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 tipp6d with white and barred with black. 

 More often you wiU 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. 



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