172 MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



posed of individuals about the size of a Pigeon, and they were 

 adorned in a spick and span suit of black and white, with long 

 orange-coloured legs, and a formidable beak. The second 

 feathered gathering consisted of much smaller birds, which looked 

 like large Swallows, but they were dressed in a neat garb of 

 silvery-grey. 



A closer approach told me at once that this second flock were 

 Terns, or Sea Swallows, as they are often called, and, as the 

 birds rose en masse in the air, the sight was one not easily for- 

 gotten. The wings of the Tern are very sharp cut, and the move- 

 ments of these delightful seabirds when in the air are particularly 

 graceful. The Oyster-catcher, for such was the name of the 

 larger black and white bird I also had under observation, is 

 also a strong flier, and it is one of the sentinels of the seashore. 

 It is frequently referred to as the Sea Magpie, the black and 

 white plumage being responsible for this localism. Although 

 named Oyster-catcher, it does not feed on Oysters, though there 

 are large beds of the famous bivalve in the district where I 

 rambled. Doubtless, the countless numbers of Mussels and other 

 shellfish attract the Oyster-catcher at low tide, and the ingenious 

 way in which the birds split open the valves is not the least 

 interesting feature concerning them. 



On the flat Lincolnshire coast, over and around the marram- 

 laden sand dunes at Mablethorpe, and on to Bridlington, Flam- 

 borough Head, Filey, Scarborough, and Whitby, I have made 

 several expeditions, and at Scarborough I tramped over the 

 heathery moors a record distance of forty-eight miles in one day. 

 It was on this expedition I first saw the nest, and listened to the 

 song, of the Ring Ouzel. At Filey I saw the largest Jellyfishes 

 which live in British seas, and kept pace along the beautiful 

 stretch of sands with the Rev. A. N. Cooper, popularly dubbed 

 the Walking Parson, but best remembered by me as a kind host 

 and genial companion. 



I have stood upon the rock-girt Filey Brig, peeped over the 

 Speeton cliffs to study the various plumages of Black-headed 

 and other Gulls, and had, as fellow-lodgers next to my bed- 

 room at Scarborough, Black Rats, a Python, and what is stated 

 to be the largest Boa Constrictor in Europe ! 



I have had just a peep at the coast of Durham and North- 

 umberland, and, near the eastern entrance to Scotland, that 

 mecca of sea-bird life, the Fame Islands, for ever associated with 

 the heroism of Grace Darling on September 7th, 1838. A stretch 



