SUNDRY INCIDENTS OF FOWL AND FOWLING 437 



ficial features of the bleak spots around. Examine the 

 space that lies within arm's length of the boat — what a 

 wonderful microcosm exists in every yard ! The pro- 

 fusion of marine life is bewildering-, and a struggle for 

 existence rages as keenly here, out on desert ooze and 

 sand-flat, as on thronging Stock Exchange or in the 

 precincts of Lombard Street. What are those little 

 coteries of dunlins finding on the bare sand — what is it that 

 impels them to dart hither and thither, alert and active as 

 frightened mice? Apparently there is sand, nothing but 

 sand : but to them that sand is a mine of wealth, in the 

 form of countless tiny insects, crustaceans, sand-worms, 

 and the spawn of an infinity of minute forms of life. The 

 mud, too, has its swarming population : those holes which 

 everywhere perforate the banks of its creeks are the homes 

 of the clam ; its surface is traced in every direction with 

 the trail of the wandering periwinkle- — the objective of the 

 "popular pin." These in warm weather lie scattered 

 broad-cast ; the mussels cluster in dense groups : but why 

 are all these empty shells strewn around ? Examine one 

 against the light, and there will be observed a tiny circular 

 hole in its side. This is the work of the dog-whelk, a very 

 cannibal among molluscs : with his strong-toothed pro- 

 boscis, he drills a hole right through the hard calcareous 

 armour of poor mytillus, and proceeds to feast on his suc- 

 culent interior. But the whelk, too, has his enemies ; 

 for, on picking up half-a-dozen shells, several are found to 

 be tenanted by that strange usurper the hermit-crab. . . . 

 But our investigations are suddenly cut short. " Look out, 

 sir!" shouts our puntsman ; "here come the geese!" and 

 in one moment we are aboard, and lying as flat as any 

 oyster. 



The following list of the local names by which the 



