A CALIFORNIA BEACH 



the commonest of questions), how far he can see 

 with it. 



And naturally in such circumstances he is 

 much alive to the fellowship of beach-haunting 

 birds. Their affairs interest and amuse him. He 

 sympathizes with them. As Keats expressed it 

 so felicitously in one of his letters, he '* takes 

 part in their existence." If their attention is 

 mainly given to matters gastronomic, he does 

 not mind, nor think the worse of them. He can- 

 not sit at their table, but he looks on with pleas- 

 ure, happy in their happiness. If they take no 

 thought for raiment, and have neither store- 

 house nor barn, it is by no fault of theirs. They 

 are probably better dressed than he is, more 

 comfortably and in a thousand times better taste. 

 Let them eat and be merry. 



Here, for instance, is a flock of sanderlings, 

 a score, perhaps, or, not unlikely, a hundred. The 

 tide is falling ; they have had a long rest, sitting 

 in a close bunch on the dry sand while the beach 

 has been flooded ; and now see how busy they 

 are ! Every time a wave recedes, down they run 

 in its wake to seize any bit of edible life that it 

 may have left behind. Till the last moment they 

 stay, pecking hastily right and left in the suds, 

 not to lose a morsel; and then, as the next 

 breaker comes rolling in, back they scamper up 

 23 



