290 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



and the sandy-bottomed channels have each a character 

 and a fauna of their own. The bird-population of the 

 sands are chiefly waders- — curlews, godwits, grey plovers, 

 and birds of that ilk, together with a few sheld-ducks ; 

 while the deep-water channels, or "guts," are the resort 

 of divers of all denominations, namely, scaup and golden- 

 eyes, mergansers, cormorants, grebes, and the colymbi. 



The sand-flats, which on some parts of the coast are 

 of immense extent, are not favourable grounds for punting 

 operations, even though occupied by thousands of birds. 

 Their surface is too level. A fall of perhaps a foot to 

 the mile renders it demonstrably impossible to float a 

 punt (drawing, say, three inches) within many hundred 

 yards of birds sitting on the "dry " — on sand. Mud is flat 

 enough ; but on it there are slight banks and hollows, and 

 shallow winding creeks : sand being a far less coherent 

 substance, the powerful sweep of the tide removes every 

 irregularity of surface, and reduces the whole wide area 

 to a practically horizontal plane as smooth as a polished 

 mahogany table. When cruising along the tide-channels 

 which border such a place, what looks like a solid wall 

 of birds may be observed ahead, from which there 

 resounds a tumultuous babble of harsh voices. These 

 are all godwits, standing in very shallow water. Long 

 ere the punt can float within shot, the solid wall is seen to 

 be melting away by driblets- — now a dozen, then fifty, 

 or a hundred birds depart in detachments as the tide 

 creeps up, and before a fair range is attained, not a pair 

 can be observed together. 



All these larger waders are feeding chiefly on the sand- 

 worms, whose numbers in such places are legion. Hardly 

 has the tide ebbed off the sand than its smooth surface 

 js dotted and spotted all over with their myriad little 



