92 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



livelihood, depending now on drowned kittens and puppies, 

 small stranded fish thrown out from the shrimp-boats, and 

 any other useless flotsam of the kind. 



It is extremely interesting to see how the shore-birds frolic 

 and feed and fraternise. They live in a little world quite of 

 their own ; they have their joys and surprises, their worries 

 and fancies, and there is earnest as well as frolicsomeness in 

 their daily round. They appear to have no regularly set 

 times for slumber, and are awakened from soundest sleep by 

 the least of alarms. Nor do they all sleep at one time, for 

 odd birds are sure to be on the watch against surprise: these 

 may be preening their feathers, or standing listlessly as if 

 thinking, but their beady eyes are keen to discern the slightest 

 threat of danger. When feeding in flocks of any number, 

 dunlins, curlew-sandpipers, and others of their kindred seem 

 far more shy and mistrustful, more especially if there be any 

 ringed plovers among them. It may be that, trusting to 

 scouts and sentinels, danger is the more quickly recognised 

 and the more promptly evaded, whereas solitary birds and 

 small family parties are less suspicious, and will often allow 

 of a very near approach. I have drifted past solitary little 

 waders which I could almost have reached with an oar, and 

 have deliberately splashed water over them ere they would 

 take to wing. Small waders are more restless on the flood 

 tide than on the ebb ; and gunners know that their chances to 

 get a shot into the " brown " of a flock are greater when, after 

 being disturbed from their feeding grounds by the rising 

 waters, they bunch up and wheel round and round like a com- 

 pact squadron of cavalry, to find fresh quarters. Then it is 

 that a clever mimicry of their call-notes may mean disaster 

 to them; for, evidently imagining some fortunate companion 

 has something to tell them, the poor things dash by in search 

 of him, and the slaughter of a number of them assures the 

 survivors, sometimes with broken legs and often much-ruffled 

 feathers, how badly they have been deceived. 



When the tide falls, leaving a sloppy surface on the ooze, 

 and before the Annelida and other low forms of life have 

 drawn back far into the mud, or hidden, for the moisture that 

 is necessary to life and comfort then are the smaller tribes 

 of shore-birds happiest and busiest ; and they will scatter in 

 all directions with eagerness, covering with astonishing alacrity 



