FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



color at the base and dusky toward the end — 

 are designed for utility or ornament (or for nei- 

 ther) I hazard no guess. And I may say the 

 same regarding its slight upward inclination, 

 which gives its owner a pleasingly rakish air, 

 especially in certain of its attitudes; when, for 

 instance, it poses on one of its long legs with its 

 neck drawn in and its bill held halfway level, ex- 

 actly as Audubon pictured it. I once saw one on 

 our beach who looked for all the world as if he 

 had stepped out of the book. ** Yes, sir," he might 

 have said, "I am Audubon's bird." And nobody 

 could have denied it. 



My bird of yesterday was an exceptionally 

 handsome specimen, or so I thought ; decidedly 

 handsome at all events, whether or not he had 

 any actual preeminence in that respect. It was 

 one of those cases, perhaps, where something 

 must be allowed for the play of an excited im- 

 agination. 



For some minutes he fed quietly; at least, 

 he went through all the appropriate motions, 

 thrusting his bill into the mud again and again. 

 But as an angler may cast by the hour and catch 

 nothing, so we may presume it w^ll sometimes 

 fare with a godwit — if he is equally patient, or 

 equally simple. For some reason, at any rate, 

 this fellow soon took wing again with a succes- 



48 



