16 BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 



would hear that concert of sweet sounds penetrating it, 

 though the singers were invisible to me, and the very 

 atmosphere was as laden with melody as the grass blades 

 with drops of water. 



The waders, except the large whimbrel and curlew, only 

 used the bays as inns, refreshing themselves for a few 

 hours and continuing their journey (some of them from 

 the Arctic) southward. However small the party, the 

 different species mixed, and where in the morning the 

 tawny sands stretched out in solitude, there in the after- 

 noon were ringed plover, dunlin, and little stint to gladden 

 them, darting to and fro after the amphipods, like 

 shrimp in a pool, while in comical imperturbability and 

 ungainly dignity, to make a contrast with these shore- 

 sprites, trailing tails along the sand, and holding heads 

 high in air, shambled to the water's edge the shags in 

 their dark, metallic greens, grotesque, clockwork toys, 

 Neanderthal birds. 1 



The tame curlew (the tame curlew ! it is like speaking 

 of a shirtless waiter.) enhanced the impression of the 

 companionableness of life in these solitudes. Free from 

 persecution, they used to disport themselves in the air 

 above my head, their long incurved bills very conspicuous 

 against the background of flawless sky, which threw into 

 relief the delicate reddish grey of the plumage. Among 

 the rocks, clustered with naticas, acorn-barnacles and 

 limpets, the plumage is a duller monotone of sandy brown. 

 They are not always sure-footed when climbing among 

 the long streamers of bladder-wrack draped from the 

 rocks, nor prudent at table. I once saw a curlew drag 

 out a large crab from a crevice, despatch it with blows 

 from the bill, and then nearly choke himself with it, 

 dancing about on his shanks and shaking his fine head. 

 A pair of whimbrel usually associated with them on the 

 shore, easily distinguishable from curlew at twenty-five 

 yards range (at which distance I would sit in plain view 

 and watch them) by smaller size and bill, darker crown 



1 The shag, though more local than the cormorant, takes its 

 place in Pembrokeshire. In diving for fish, the bird (like the 

 cormorant) leaps right out of the water, turns a semi-circle, 

 then goei in head first. 



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