THE FLATS 33 



as those of sanderling, dunlin, and stint. He has a 

 way of making a swift dash along the flat, and then 

 standing stock still, with head and neck hunched in on 

 his shoulders. Then he will begin to peck away at the 

 sandhoppers, making another little run and stop again 

 to reflect. Meanwhile, the sanderling, moving on an 

 evener and less thoughtful disposition, is dibbling away 

 here and there and everywhere, stopping not for spiritual 

 food, but some choicer morsel which has caught his 

 roving eye. Even from these trivial indications we can 

 guess that the little plover is a shade more independent and 

 original in temper, a shade more likely to contain within 

 his loins the destinies of a mightier race in the future. 



But I saw something much more interesting than this 

 charming habit of a species, namely a highly developed 

 variant of a single individual of it. On the further side 

 from me of the creek dividing the mud flats at Blakeney 

 was a party of twenty-three of the little plovers ; on 

 the hither two birds alone, one a ringed plover, the 

 other (it was, I think, a young bird) showing the white 

 and warm buff and slightly decurved bill of the pigmy 

 curlew. The pair moved about the mud feeding, and 

 when they got at all separated one of them would run 

 up to the other, and they would stand for a time 

 motionless and close together. Then the plover (called 

 sandlark here) ceased feeding and stood meditating, 

 while the little curlew went on with his meal. When the 

 latter had moved some distance, the plover took his 

 elegant little run and resumed his cogitations close to 

 as my thick wits at last discovered his comrade. 

 All of a sudden the plovers on the other side of the creek 

 took flight, but little curlew and little plover remained 

 behind, quite unconcerned and happy in one another's 

 company. It was a rare experience to be admitted into 

 the secret of this intimacy, as it was disquieting to reflect 

 that any day it may be ruptured, and one or both of 

 these avian friends disappear into the bag of the gunner. 

 Mr. Hudson, I remember, relates a similar comradeship 

 between a blackbird and a pheasant, Romanes between 

 a widgeon and a peacock, and Montagu in the Supplement 

 to his Dictionary between a pointer and a Chinese goose. 



3 



