A CALIFORNIA BEACH 



Land, and northern Greenland to Point Barrow, 

 Alaska, northern Mackenzie, Iceland, and north- 

 em Siberia." A long flight, at the nearest, from 

 southern California. Yet during the past year I 

 have noted them on our Santa Barbara beach in 

 every month except June ! And even that month 

 was missed by a matter of only four days, since 

 a few birds were observed as late as May 28. 



So many stragglers are there tagging in the 

 rear of the main army, and so surprisingly brief 

 is the time that these natives of arctic and sub- 

 arctic regions tarry in what is to them the home 

 country. Why they should continue to travel so 

 far to make so short a stay is a question which 

 they may answer who can. 



A long way from Santa Barbara, I said. But 

 that is the smallest part of the story ; for the 

 sanderlings that winter in southern California 

 are the merest handful, a few hundreds or thou- 

 sands out of milHons ; the overwhelming ma- 

 jority of the host go much farther south, some 

 of the more adventurous as far as Patagonia ; a 

 semiannual hegira for these diminutive creatures, 

 but a few ounces in weight, sufficient to stagger 

 the imagination if we were not so heedless of 

 such things or so accustomed to the thought of 

 them. 



But then, we ought to have discovered before 

 17 



