SHORE BIRDS. 
2G 
lember and October there is a “flight” at Guiana, just the 
same as there i3 at Labrador, Newfoundland, Cape Cod and 
the Barbadoes. A letter from the ornithologist of the Na¬ 
tional Museum at Rio de Janeiro, under date of July 9, 1879, 
throws some light upon the subject. “ 1 found Charcidrius 
pluvialis, Wils., on the island of Marajo in the month of De¬ 
cember in flocks of about twenty individuals. Later I found 
it in the month of May in Rio de Sul and in December, 1878, 
near Rio de Janeiro at Lopopember in a small flock of twelve 
individuals. This bird seems to me to be one of passage in 
these parts, because in Rio de Janeiro, for example, they are 
known as migratory birds, appearing only in the wet season, 
and in other places they appear always in flocks of ten, 
twenty or thirty individuals.” As the plover are accom¬ 
panied in their departure from the West Indies by many 
other species, so we may infer that, notwithstanding 
they were not seen at Rio, still they were abundant 
in the vicinity. We are informed that during the 
migrating season these birds are plenty at the 
mouths of the Rio de la Plata and further south, and 
we are not quite clear that they do not breed there. They 
certainly have time enough. Brant are not on their breed¬ 
ing grounds over three months, and Anser bernida must 
require as much time to propagate as Tringa pusilla. A 
valued correspondent (Prof. B.) writes January 3, 1881, 
from Concepcion del Uruguay: “All the Limicolce, with the 
exception of Vanellus cayanensis and possibly Rhyncteaca 
semicollarisy are migratory to a greater or less extent at this 
place.” (The two exceptional species are peculiar to South 
*• America.) We must not forget that the seasons there are 
the reverse of ours—/, e., their autumn corresponds to our 
spring, their winter to our summer. All the LimicolcB in¬ 
troduced here have large, strong wings and are capable of 
sustaining long-continued flights. In tracing these birds to 
the northeastern shores of South America we have left them 
in a hot place, not over six degrees north of the equator. 
Now, we do not suppose any of the shore birds—possessing 
as they do the means whereby they can put distance so rap. 
