The Wintry Shore. 195 



told of a man who ate six to whet his appetite for 

 dinner, and then complained that he was no more 

 hungry than when he began. 



Like most sea birds, gulls are fond of keeping out 

 to sea, but in rough weather are often driven inland. 

 In allusion to this there is an old rhyme current in 

 the North of Ireland : 



' Sea-gull, sea-gull, sit on the sand ; 

 It's never fine weather when.y<?# come to land.' 



Sea-birds are perhaps seen at their best on a low 

 shore when the tide is going down. Each fresh patch 

 of sand or shingle that is left bare by the retiring 

 waves is occupied by clamorous gulls, or silent, eager 

 waders busily searching among the sand and stones 

 for the rich harvest of the sea. 



Here a party of oyster-catchers, smartly dressed in 

 that conspicuous ' arrangement in black and white ' 

 which earns for them the appropriate name of sea- 

 pies, settle down on a mussel-bank which is just 

 beginning to show its long dark back above the surf. 

 Picking their dainty way over the sand and mud, they 

 turn over with their bright red beaks the masses of 

 olive sea-weed that shine like gold in the warm sun- 

 shine, and peer into every crevice for razor-shell or 

 star-fish that may have been stranded among the 

 stones. 



On a strip of bright sand a little troop of ringed- 

 plovers silently alight, and hurry along by the edge of 



132 



