In Dutch Water Meadows. 113 



reclaimed, intersected in every direction by ditches 

 at right angles ; in parts dry and cultivated, in others, 

 on the seaside especially, still in a half swampy 

 state. 



It was here, where the deep green of the grass was 

 in places broken with sandy strips and muddy inlets, 

 and in others bright with thrift and white and yellow 

 blossoms of different kinds, that the birds and nests 

 of which we were in search were most plentiful. 

 The air was filled and the marsh and meadows 

 alive with noisy Redshanks and fairy-like Terns, 

 the "Common" and the "Lesser." Oyster-catchers, 

 affected with the usual low spirits of their race, 

 lolled about in disconsolate attitudes, or rose with 

 a melancholy piping as we came too near them ; 

 and, where the grass gave place to pale-coloured 

 mud, Kentish plovers elsewhere rare, looking more 

 like little balls of living sand than birds, trundled 

 themselves at a great pace out of our way along 

 the water's margin. 



For these and many others, any of which would 

 elsewhere have been worth a special pilgrimage to see, 

 we had no eyes to spare. 



We were in one of the chief of the few remaining 

 summer-homes in Western Europe of the Avocet, 

 once common, now practically extinct, in England. 



One of the last of our old-established colonies 

 was at Salthouse, on the Norfolk coast, and was, 

 according to tradition, destroyed in the first half 

 of this century for the sake of the birds' feathers, 

 which were in request at the time for making 

 artificial flies. 



No one who has only seen an Avocet stuffed can 

 form any idea of the grace of outline and motion of 

 the living bird ; nor of the bewildering permutations 



