THE FAMILY OF WADERS. 241 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE FAMILY OF WADERS. 



BEAUTIFUL, happy creatures are the waders. They 

 know nothing of distance as we estimate it, for 

 their wonderful wings, which speak so plainly of 

 the wisdom and foresight of their Creator, carry 

 them at a marvellous rate of speed round and 

 across the whole world. To them four or five 

 hundred miles is only a pleasant flitting. No gale 

 stops them, knowing well, as they do, how to take 

 every advantage of all air-currents, through which 

 their strong wings cut as if they were knives. Our 

 shores and the wide edges of our tidal rivers would 

 be desolate indeed without their enlivening pres- 

 ence. In summer and winter, in fair weather or 

 foul, the waders come, and in countless hosts they 



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