LETTER XIX. 



133 



looking through the clear green water, I was relieved to see my 

 young friend leisurely walking about the sandy bottom, as if he 

 had no immediate intention of revisiting the upper regions of air, 

 and evidently quite at ease, though it must have been his first 

 taste of salt water. 



I have two or three times seen the Oyster-catcher in a rather 

 unusual position — namely, on a newly -ploughed field, as if 

 searching for worms. 1 



^^i^^M^^ 



Certainly, the land was liberally covered 

 with a layer of seaweed, which is extensively, almost exclusively, 



1 A habit common enough along the big rivers of the East of Scotland, but 

 rarer in the West. — Ed. 



K 



