BIEDS OP THE SALT MARSHES 



and curve downwards to check their course. 

 Occasionally, however, they throw themselves 

 at the water in order to obtain food below 

 the surface, and, on rare occasions, actually 

 disappear for a moment, bobbing up later to 

 swallow their prey. 



Although herring gulls often spend the 

 night on the beach, I have sometimes seen 

 them collect on the marsh in the latter part 

 of the evening, as if they were preparing to 

 sleep there. One June day, between five and 

 six o'clock in the afternoon, I counted over 

 nine hundred of these birds slowly wringing 

 their way, singly and in small bands to a nar- 

 row island of green marsh, where they settled 

 in closely crowded ranks. They were still 

 coming in undiminished nmnbers when I 

 stopped counting. 



A long list could be made of the ducks that 

 have been seen in the salt marshes, but alas, 

 in these degenerate days, most of those on the 

 list are of but rare or accidental occurrence. 

 The early days are long passed when, in the 

 words of William Wood, writing in 1634, 

 ^' The Duckes of the countrey be very large 

 ones and in great abundance, so is there of 

 Teale likewise; the price of a Ducke is six 



237 



