36 THE BIRD WATCHER 
as are proper to theit@hore life, amidst those strange 
new waters, from which others as constantly ascend. 
Gulls, too, and sometimes cormorants, may be there, 
whilst dove-cot pigeons, with familiar, yet now half 
phantasmal strut and bow, mingle occasionally, like 
little household Pucks, with the more poetic figures 
of this fairy dream. A dream, indeed, it is; but, 
more and more, it passes into one of far-off, sunnier 
lands—seen once, remembered now. Bluer becomes 
the sky—the sea; softer the air. Palm-trees wave, 
the long, bright breakers are bursting on a coral shore, 
the surf roars in, hissing and sparkling, the gulls are 
the surf-riders, England is no more. 
