(Order, LIMICOLAE)
The order =Limicolae=, which is composed of the shore birds proper,
is abundantly represented. They are seen wading in the shallow waters,
carefully watching for worms, insects and other species of food upon
which they live, boring in the soft mud, scurrying in flocks from
place to place, or running along the beach as the surf recedes,
picking up the jetsam of the sea, then taking wing or running back
like a playful child to the higher ground as the foaming crest of the
next breaker rushes up the sandy shingle. Or, as is the case of the
phalaropes and some others, they may be seen riding lightly upon the
restless billows far out at sea. Modest in coloring and plain in
plumage, the shore birds seem to belong to the plebeians of the
avafauna, for they are constant workers, always busy, always plying
their slender legs rapidly as they hurry from one spot to another,
never idle, never resting for a moment.
Of the shore birds there are six families and twenty genera
represented on the Coast. Most of them are quite abundant from
Washington to Mexico on their respective feeding grounds.
[Illustration:
WILSON SNIPE, OR JACK-SNIPE DOWITCHER
(Gallinago delicata) (Macrorhamphus scolopaceus)]