VOL. IX.] "WAIT AND SEE "PHOTOGRAPHY. 313 



kek, kek," until the duck joined him, when they went off 

 to feed. 



After sundown many beautiful things happen by the 

 meres, and also by the inland pools left by the receding 

 tide. These cannot possibly be photographed. One 

 evening thirty Lapwings assembled in one pool at Sneuk 

 End and paddled about in the then very shallow water. 

 A week's hot sun had rapidly dried up the pools, and in 

 the shallower parts the Lapwings' feet were barely 

 covered. 



They stood solemnly each on on3 leg, conversing in low 

 tones. It seemed as if the twilight and the lengthening 

 shadows had a subduing influence upon even the Lapwing's 

 irrepressible spirits. In the misty gloaming, they looked 

 twice their natural size. Immobile as statues, only their 

 k)ng shadows seemed alive, as the faintest possible breeze 

 ruffled the pool and made the shadows dance. 



Another evening, about eighty Curlews met together 

 by a shallow pool left by the receding tide in a sheltered 

 bay on the mainland. They came in from all the country- 

 side in little flocks, like Starluags going to roost. One 

 impudent Dunlin tripped into the midst of this solemn 

 assembly. Several Curlews just turned and stared 

 haughtily at the intruder ; it was not long before he 

 came to the conclusion that this was no place for him, 

 so he fled. 



It is sidelights on wild life such as these that make 

 the " Wait and See " method so obviously worth while. 

 You never know what may happen next. Sometimes 

 the inevitable disappointments of chance work make you 

 wish you had never been born. But the remembrance 

 of the grey days and the gold remains. The grey days 

 by the mere, and the golden days amongst the sandhills, 

 and the blue days at sea. These are priceless memories. 

 Why one ever burdens oneself with a nerve-racking 

 camera I have never yet been able to discover ! 



