ig6 By Leafy Ways. 



the water, showing now and then as they raise their 

 heads the neat black gorgets that cross their snowy 

 breasts. 



Roving here and there among the pebbles a com- 

 pany of turnstones are hard at work, their red legs and 

 bills brilliant in the sunlight. 



A cloud of sandpipers, after sailing a long way up 

 the beach and then sharply back again, apparently 

 unable to decide where to look for their dinners, 

 suddenly settle down and spread out like skirmishers 

 far and wide over the yellow sand. 



Rocking idly on the waves a few herring gulls are 

 floating over their snowy reflections in the green water. 

 Hard by them stand a pair of stately herons waiting 

 perhaps until the tide goes down. Farther out a cor- 

 morant is diving for his dinner. 



Along the edge of the sea wander a troop of curlews 

 wariest of all the dwellers on the shore. Should 

 one of them sound an alarm the scattered flocks of 

 dunlins and plovers raise their heads and hurry closer 

 together. The oyster-catchers stop their work and 

 prepare for flight. If the warning is repeated the 

 whole crew rise on the wing with plaintive cries, and, 

 breaking up into parties, move farther off to remoter 

 hunting-grounds. 



Suddenly from behind the headland sweeps a rolling 

 sea-fog : a great white cloud of seething vapour. The 

 bright sunlight, that but a moment since seemed like 

 the' soul of a balmy April day, is veiled under the 



