ON FOWLERS AND WILD-FOWLING. 153 



permitted. The men of the coast-line are a distinct 

 race. Whether they hail from Romney Marsh or 

 from the wild shores of Northumberland, they 

 quickly fraternise when they come across each 

 other ; and although their dialects may differ, their 

 mode of thought and habits of life are the same. 

 They change little. I have just returned from a 

 visit to the dreary flats, and found them swept over 

 by the storms that have lashed round our shores of 

 late. The men were just what they were in my 

 boyhood, in thought and action entirely unlike the 

 folks dwelling inland. 



Naturalists they do not profess to be; but they 

 know all the fowl, web-footed and hen-footed, and 

 their plumage, sex, haunts, and habits, as well as 

 any farmer's wife knows the ways of her own 

 poultry. I have before me a list of the wild-fowl, 

 with their local names. To mention a few of the 

 family of the divers, we have the sprat diver, the 

 magpie diver this bird's plumage being black and 

 white, and again the little magpie diver, the mo- 

 rillon or rattle -wings, and the buffle-headed duck 

 called by our folks " the harlekin," because this bird 

 springs and dives like a flash. The " cussed " 



