SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



long and had a mouth a foot wide— a singu- 

 larly open countenance. 



While the herring gull feeds principally on 

 dead fish and other refuse on the water and 

 on the beach, it also devours crabs and snails 

 and sea urchins whenever it gets a chance, 

 and, on very rare occasions, plunges like a tern 

 for small living fish. 



I treasure in my memory a stormy July day, 

 when the wind was sweeping down cold and 

 wet on to the shore, when a fog-bank lay to 

 the east and great dark cumuli to the north 

 of a gray sea studded with white-caps, when 

 patches of fleecy scud drove overhead, reveal- 

 ing here and there spots of blue sky, and when 

 the surf moaned on the bar. Herring gulls 

 were everywhere, for the sea had cast up for 

 them a bountiful feast. The sand flats were 

 splashed with great patches of young herring, 

 here shining like silver, there looking dark 

 and colorless, while windrows of hake and pol- 

 lack and schools of dog-fish dotted the shore. 

 The sand was covered with the gulls' foot- 

 prints, and marked with great white splashes, 

 while feathers were blowing about as from an 

 open feather-bed. As. I stood on the edge of 

 the beach, bracing myself against the wind, I 



126 



