NIGHTS ON THE WATER 79 



here which are seldom seen elsewhere. A clamber through 

 the gap in the sandhills brings the watcher to the beach, 

 where he will find the ringed plover mournfully piping to his 

 fellows, the sanderling with his freckled gorget round his 

 chest and the gay turnstone almost tumbling over the stones 

 in search of the sandhoppers on which he feeds. 



The oystercatcher drops in and hunts for a stranded 

 mussel, on his way to join his comrades on the muddy shores 



'grey plover, with vest of black' 



of the Wash, where mollusca are much more in evidence. 

 The gulls are not so numerous as in other days, for the larger 

 species have gone south to breed ; and only stray blackheads, 

 holidaying an hour or so from their duties further inland, 

 break the dull sea level with dots of white. In spring there 

 are many birds occasionally to be met with — the grey plover, 

 with vest of black, the grey godwit in suit of red, the dunlin 

 with shirt front of deepest black, and the tern with pearly 

 mantle, on its way north to nest. On the sandy slopes and 

 marram-tufted knolls the wheatear flecks his tail, and the 



