8 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



and the channel within so tortuous and uncer- 

 tain, that none but small vessels of trifling ton- 

 nage can attempt a passage; and even of these 

 the number is so small and the arrivals are so 

 irregular, that they only arrest the attention of 

 the observer as they cautiously thread their diffi- 

 cult way to deposit or receive a cargo of coals or 

 corn at the hamlet of Siddlesham, which is seen 

 rising, like a little Dutch village, from the flat 

 shores in the distance. 



Here, in the dead long summer days, when not 

 a breath of air has been stirring, have I fre- 

 quently remained for hours, stretched on the hot 

 shingle, and gazed at the osprey as he soared 

 aloft, or watched the little islands of mud at the 

 turn of the tide, as each gradually rose from 

 the receding waters, and was successively taken 

 possession of by flocks of sandpipers and ring- 

 dotterels, after various circumvolutions on the 

 part of each detachment, now simultaneously 

 presenting their snowy breasts to the sunshine, 

 now suddenly turning their dusky backs, so that 

 the dazzled eye lost sight of them from the con- 

 trast; while the prolonged cry of the titterel,* 



* The provincial name for the whimbrel. The word 

 titterel frequently repeated by a female voice (in alt.) 

 would nearly resemble the cry of this bird. 



