SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



display an intelligence akin to our own, and 

 that the sharp line between instinct for them 

 and reasoning power for us should not be 

 drawn. The Lord only knows how much of 

 our own boasted intelligence is merely in- 

 stinctive ; I have known dogs that have shown 

 more reasoning power than I have seen dis- 

 played by some stupid people. I have a par- 

 rot that shows its intelligence in the same 

 manner as the gull by taking hard bits of 

 cracker to its water jar and soaking them 

 before it eats them. 



The common habit of herring gulls, as well 

 as of crows, of dropping clams, sea-snails or 

 crabs from a height in order to break their 

 shells, accounts for the multitude of these 

 objects both in the dunes and on marsh 

 islands. As its prey falls, the bird drops down 

 after it, and sometimes repeats the process 

 again and again. 



On disturbing a pair of sheldrakes or red- 

 breasted mergansers one calm day from their 

 comfortable nap on the beach, I found in the 

 sand record that they were obliged to stride 

 forward twenty-nine yards before they could 

 push the beach away from them. Their 

 strides were three feet long, and the duck 



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