CHAPTER XVIII. 

 BIRDS OF THE SEA-SHORE. 



ONE of the greatest charms of the sea-shore to the majority 

 of visitors is afforded by the marine birds in their varied 

 occupations of flying, swimming, diving, and walking. In 

 these beautiful creatures the British coasts are rich, even 

 when we exclude (as we propose to do from this chapter) the 

 many species that frequent the mud-flats of estuaries in 

 preference to the rocks and sands of the sea-coast proper. 

 Strange as it may at first sight seem, the sea-sands are in the 

 hard weather of winter the resort of multitudes of small birds 

 from inland woods and commons, which here seek their sus- 

 tenance at the very time when hunger induces the gulls to 

 follow the plough and to penetrate far up the rivers even to 

 such uncongenial places as London itself, where, however, 

 they are sure of a cordial welcome and a plentiful repast. 

 Then is the season for the starlings and the thrushes to take 

 their sea-change, and I have seen them in winter in great 

 crowds upon the sands, hobnobbing and competing with rooks, 

 redbreasts, lapwings, and finches of many kinds, for the odds 

 and ends brought in by every wave, and for the smaller 

 mollusks, the marine worms and minor crustaceans that the 

 shore affords to the quick-eyed and the patient seeker. 



But our business just now is more with those birds to whom 

 the shore and the adjacent waters are their every-day hunting- 

 grounds, the place where many of them lay their eggs and 

 rear their young. One of the most constant of these is the 

 Rock Pipit (Anthus obscurus}, whose happy chirrup and light- 

 hearted springy flight from sand to rock, or rock to rock, are 



