SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



several expedients in order to arrive at some 

 idea of their magnitude. For example I have 

 measured the size of a sand bar on which a 

 flock had been so closely packed that the birds 

 stood for the most part shoulder to shoulder. 

 Again I have paced the distance occupied by 

 a flock on the beach, or the distance along 

 which the birds stretched when alighted in the 

 water opposite the beach. Even allowing one 

 bird to a square yard or eight or ten to each 

 linear yard, the numbers sometimes went up 

 as high as twenty-five thousand birds. I have 

 never dared to record an estimate of over six 

 thousand birds, for fear of exaggeration, but 

 perhaps it is as unscientific to underestimate 

 as to overestimate. 



It would take long to write down all the 

 interesting traits of this splendid gull. A few 

 of them have incidentally been set down in 

 the chapter on tracks. In these days, when 

 young men dream dreams and see visions of 

 themselves in aeroplanes, they cannot do bet- 

 ter than to study the flight of this bird, and 

 the marvelous manner in which it uses its 

 aeroplanes. I believe that there is much to 

 be learned by this study, much that will prove 

 of immense interest and value to aviators, and 



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