The Sandpipers 61 



for a full hour, and would not move a muscle, 

 except when now and then he darted his long 

 bill into the water, and then heaved it up into 

 the air with a trout struggling at the end of it. 

 At last, as his back was turned to them, their 

 parents whistled them away, and they crept 

 back to the nest in deep disappointment. 



" Why should we be afraid of that creature?" 

 asked the eldest : "he eats fish, not Sand- 

 pipers." 



" Let him see you, my child," said the father, 

 "and he'll snap you up with that long bill of 

 his as quick as a trout can snap a fly. There 

 was a wild duck up the stream which had a 

 nice little family just learning to swim, when 

 down came a heron before they could hide 

 themselves and indeed they can't hide them- 

 selves so well, poor things, as you have learnt 

 to and he just took those ducklings one after 

 another, and made such a good meal of them 

 that he went away without stopping to fish, 

 and the poor parents had to make another nest 

 and go through their work all over again." 



So they had to stop at home while the heron 



