sanderling

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: sand=er=ling

CIDE DICTIONARY

sanderling, n. [Sand + -ling. So called because it obtains its food by searching the moist sands of the seashore.].

 A small gray and brown sandpiper (Calidris arenaria) very common on sandy beaches in America, Europe, and Asia. Called also curwillet, sand lark, stint, and ruddy plover.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

sanderling, n. a small wading bird, Calidris alba, of the sandpiper family.

Etymology

perh. f. an OE form sandyrthling (unrecorded, as SAND + yrthling ploughman, also the name of a bird)