THE ESTUARY I 33 



if there was anybody about ; because it would have 

 been a good chance for anyone who might happen to 

 be watching him to have shifted his position, ever so 

 sHghtly, when the Curlew was supposed to be feeding, 

 and no one knew that fact better than the Curlew 

 himself. Presently a Heron joins them, alighting like 

 a fallen feather, and walks a little way out into the 

 stream, placing first one foot, and then the other, very 

 gently and tentatively in the water, as though he too 

 were thinking out some abstruse question. The Heron 

 looks about him many times before he begins to feed, 

 and keeps his long neck stretched out at an angle like 

 that of the Egret, though he is slower than that bird in 

 his movements. 



The Greenshanks are very fond of chasing one 

 another when they are feeding in the shallow water, 

 through which they move about with great agility. One 

 day while I was out on the estuary, several Green- 

 shanks rose simultaneously, loudly uttering their alarm 

 cries, when the reason became at once apparent, for a 

 little Falcon shot down among them, just missed one of 

 the Greenshanks, and soon disappeared out of sight. 

 I do not think the Greenshanks recovered this, which 

 was a real danger, for some time, as they kept on the 

 wing till their shrill cries were lost in the distance. 



The tide has now sunk so low that there is only a 

 broad river, not more than one-third of its width at high 

 tide, between Steinbok Island and the island that we 

 are on. On either side this channel is margined broadly 

 with a carpet of smooth green sea-grass, which shows 

 up to advantage the white plumage of the Egrets, stand- 

 ing here and there at intervals ; nearest the shore of 



