24 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XXII. 



your feet. Their chief motive power seems to lie in 

 their broad tails, with which they propel themselves 

 along at a wonderful rate ; then suddenly stopping, 

 they in an instant bury themselves in the sand; and 

 it is only a very sharp eye that can detect the exact 

 spot where they are by observing their outline 

 faintly marked on the sand in which they are en- 

 sconced : sometimes also their two prominent eyes 

 may be discovered in addition to their outline. 



It is a favourite amusement with my boys in the 

 summer to hunt and spear the flounders which re- 

 main at low water in the pools and runs of water 

 in the bay. On a calm day, by wading to where 

 the water is a foot or two in depth, they kill, with 

 the assistance of a long light spear, a basketful 

 of good-sized fish. 



When a flounder is taken out of the water and 

 laid on the moist sands, by a peculiar lateral motion 

 of his fins he buries himself as quickly as if still 

 in his own element. 



The large gulls keep up a system of surveillance 

 over all the calm pools at low water, hovering over 

 them, and pouncing down like hawks on any fish 

 which may be left in them. As the tide ebbs, num- 

 bers of herons, also, come down to the water's edge, 

 and keeping up step by step with the receding tide, 

 watch for any fish or marine animal that may suit 



