MORE WADERS 81 



except when resting, is always in a state of restless 

 activity ; even when he settles he is not able to stand 

 still, for he bobs up and down all the time. No law 

 is given to a Redshank, on the wing or on the 

 ground he is pulled on, if within range. 



In out-of-the-way fishing hamlets, at the end of 

 wide creeks, some of them five miles long, with no 

 houses between them and the tide, the water lapped 

 the door-sills, and the fowl waited on the tide. 

 From the very nature of the creeks and the salt 

 flats on either side of them, food for the fowl was 

 in unlimited quantities. I have started with a com- 

 panion for better fowl, and when not five minutes' 

 walk from our house we have put up a Yelper from 

 the side of a rotten pile ; he had been prospecting 

 round. Then he has shot off zig-zagging from one 

 side of the creek to the other, making a terrible 

 row. 



" Bad job that," says our companion ; " he'll rouse 



some more." 



He did so. The creek was, as they term it, " full 

 o' fowl," for the tide had just ebbed ; but the Yelpers 

 had upset the lot, even the Ox-birds and Sander- 

 lings were not to be got at. When we returned, 

 after four hours' hard work, I had a couple of 

 Sanderlings, and my companion a Woodcock Owl, 

 that had got up out of the bents. 



We owed this to the Yelpers. Such things are not 

 to be helped or provided for ; they are there, and 

 you know you must put up with it. There is one 

 consolation, what the guns miss getting at, the flight- 



