At the Water’s Edge 
——‘‘ A mighty rocke, ’gainst which doe rave, 
The roring billowes in their proud disdaine : ” 
but the attractiveness of the sandy shore is of 
quite another sort. Here one finds a milder 
and more restful beauty on the broad and level 
beach, where each retiring wave leaves, spread 
before the eye, a momentary mirror of magnifi- 
cent extent, wherein the clouds and sun by day, 
and stars by night, age after age, are ever newly 
imaged in the quicksilver flood; and where, 
from spring to fall, the dainty nimble plovers, 
running to and fro with each advancing and re- 
treating wave, reflect their graceful forms and 
motions on the glassysands. During migration, 
particularly, one finds various species of water 
fowl along this beach, especially in the sand- 
piper family ; and I here made the acquaintance 
of that beautiful little coast-bird, the semi- 
palmated plover, one of the two ring-necked 
species that are the most abundant of the plover 
kind. 
Following the beach for a mile or more, I 
discovered at first only numerous ducks, persist- 
ently floating beyond the surf-line, and outside 
the pale of specific distinguishableness, or occa- 
sionally flying, in their characteristic manner, 
in small squads, with rapid wing-beat, baggy 
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