SHARP-TAILED STINT 95 
change into winter plumage is completed. It is 
rather like a big edition of the Little Stint, in whose 
company it is often found. It feeds upon ground- 
insects and worms in the brackish swamps which 
are its favourite resort. If a shot be fired in the 
direction of a flock of Stints feeding on a mud-bank, 
it is characteristic that not all will fly ; even though 
those that remain be quite unhurt, they have the 
habit of staying where they are until the shooter 
is surprised to see a bird get up and take wing from 
beneath his feet as it were. 
This is one of the visiting Waders which at times 
leave the muddy margins of lakes and rivers for drier 
grass paddocks ; its favoured feeding-place, however, 
is a grass-grown flooded flat with still an inch or so 
of water on it. The species is peculiarly abundant 
in the backwaters of Lake Connewarre and on the 
Geelong Salt Works; it settles, however, throughout 
the district where there is a sufficiency of swampy 
land. About April the flocks leave again for the 
north, and I am doubtful whether any birds remain 
with us for the winter ; certainly not many do so. 
The Sharp-tailed Stint is fast on the wing, and it 
takes a good shot to bring down a single bird. 
CURLEW SANDPIPER 
Erolia ferruginea chinensis 
In the Curlew Sandpiper, so called because of his 
slender and slightly decurved bill, we meet a com- 
