ASH-COLORED SANDPIPER. 483 
tinguish it from all others, and give it a very neat appeara ce. In ac- 
tivity it is superior to the preceding; and traces the flowing and re- 
cession of the waves along the sandy beach with great nimbleness, 
wading and searching among the loosened particles for its favorite 
food, which is a small, thin, oval, bivalve shell-fish, of » white or pearl 
color, and not larger than the seed of an apple. These usually lie at 
a'short depth below the surface; but in some places are seen at low 
water in heaps, like masses of wet grain, in quantities of more than a 
bushel together. During the latter part of summer and autumn, these 
minute shell-fish constitute the food of almost all those busy flocks 
that run with such activity along the sands, among the flowing and 
retreating waves. They are universally swallowed whole; but the 
action of the bird’s stomach, assisted by the shells themselves, soon 
reduces them to a pulp. If we may judge from their effects, they 
must be extremely nutritious, for almost all those tribes that feed on 
them are at this season mere lumps of fat. Digging for these in the 
hard sarid would be a work of considerable labor, whereas, when the 
particles are loosened by the flowing of the sea, the birds collect 
them with great ease and dexterity. lt is amusing to observe with 
what adroitness they follow and elude the tumbling surf, while at the 
same time they seem wholly intent on collecting their food. 
The Ash-colored Sandpiper, the subject of our present account, in- 
habits both Europe and America. It has been seen in great numbers 
on the Seal Islands, near Chatteaux Bay; is said to continue the 
whole summer in Hudson’s Bay, and breeds there. Mr. Pennant sus- 
pects that it also breeds in Denmark; and says, that they appear in 
vast flocks on the Flintshire shore during the winter season.* With 
us they are also migratory, being only seen in spring and autumn. 
They are plump birds; and, by those accustomed to the sedgy taste 
of this tribe, are esteemed excellent eating. 
The length of this species is ten inches, extent twenty ; bill, black, 
from India, but have a single specimen of a Knot from New Holland, very similar, 
and which I considered identical, until a closer examination has led me to have 
doubts on the subject. Like the other migratory species, they only appear on our 
coasts in autumn, on their return with their broods, or more sparingly in spring, 
when on their way north. The young possess a good deal of the rufous color on 
the under parts, which leaves them as the winter approaches. I once meta large 
flock on the east side of Holy Island, in the month of September, which were so 
tame as to allow me to kill as many as I wanted with stones from the beach: it 
may have been on their first arrival, when they were fatigued. I have a specimen, 
in full plumage, killed by a boy on Portobello sands by the same means. In gen- 
eral they are rather shy, and it is only in their wheeling round that a good shot can 
be obtained. Before the severity of the winter sets in, they are fat, and are sought 
after by persons who know them, for the table. 
There isa peculiarity in the gregarious T'ringe, and most of the Charadriade, 
which is very nearly confined to these tribes, — the simultaneous flight, and the 
racting as it were by concert in their wheels and evolutions. Among none is it 
more conspicuous than in this species ; and every one who has been on the shore 
during winter, on a day gleaming and cloudy, may have seen the masses of these 
birds at a distance, when the whole were only visible, appear hke a dark and swiftly 
moving cloud, suddenly vanish, but in'a second appear at some distance, glowing 
with a silvery light almost too intense to gaze upon, the consequences of the simul- 
{taneous motions of the flock, at once changing their position, and showing the 
dark grav of their backs, or the pure white of their under parts. — Ep. 
* Arctic Zoology, p. 474. 
