OCT. VELVET DUCKS — BABBITS — FOXES. 27 



apparently keeping over some ridge of sand or other 

 feeding-ground, down to which they are continually 

 diving. These birds drift along with the tide till it 

 has carried them beyond the place where they feed; 

 then they rise, and fly back for some distance, look- 

 ing more like blackcocks than ducks, and dropping 

 again into the water, they continue their diving till 

 the tide has drifted them beyond the end of the 

 feeding-ground ; and this they do again and again. 



The rabbits which inhabit these sandhills are 

 certainly larger and heavier than those living in 

 the more cultivated country, though their food 

 must consist almost entirely of dry bent, with the 

 variety of a little sea-weed and the furze bushes, 

 which they eat into numerous shapes, like foot- 

 stools, ottomans, etc. 



Foxes almost as tall and powerful as greyhounds 

 frequent this desert region ; and their fresh tracks 

 are seen after every tide close to the sea-shore, 

 whither they have been in search of cast-up fish, 

 wounded wild-fowl, and such like. 



I never pass over these sand-hills without en- 

 deavouring to suggest to myself some new theory 

 respecting their origin, and what was the state 

 of the country which they now cover over. That 

 beneath the accumulation of sand there has once 

 been a range of fertile fields cannot be doubted, as 



