64 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



vivaciously hunting in their light, airy, frolicsome 

 manner. Amongst them were several Hooded Crows 

 dipping and wheeling, and exactly mimicking their 

 web-footed companions, than whom, however, they 

 tired more quickly ; and so retired every now and 

 again for a few minutes' rest on a mud flat across 

 the channel. It was pretty to see the gulls trotting, 

 as it were, now and again upon the surface, scarcely 

 dipping their toes ; while the heavier crows, with 

 big feet hanging helplessly, dipped them, so to speak, 

 ankle deep, and needed a more spasmodic and 

 laborious effort to rise than their lighter-pinioned 

 companions. A quantity of refuse bread, fragments 

 of fish from some Scotch boats moored in the river, 

 and other like flotsam, afforded the birds a goodly 

 repast. 



There was a long dry spell in the summer of 1893. 

 The birds, depending upon ground grubs, worms, 

 and the like, fared badly, the Rooks in particular 

 being in sorry plight. Early one morning, when 

 rambling about the North Denes, I saw a Rook 

 unusually busy, and exceedingly erratic in its move- 

 ments. To get a closer view I cut down a large 

 bunch of prickly comfrey growing near by, and 

 spreading the leaves as a fan-shaped screen before 



