ON THE SALT-MAESHES 203 



dance among the innumerable drains and runnels before 

 I captured it, for, owing to the jamming of both the 

 empty cartridge-cases, and having stupidly left the 

 extractor aboard the yacht, I was unable to give him 

 the cowp de grace. Finally I ran him into an impro- 

 vised dry dock which had been cut in the saltings at the 

 base of the sea-wall for the purpose of unloading manure 

 barges, and, the sides of the same being too steep for 

 the curlew either to climb or flutter up, I very soon 

 had him bagged. 



It was now nearly ten o'clock, and all the outlying, 

 and a great number of the middle banks and ooze- 

 flats, were awash. By the aid of a powerful pair of 

 prism-glasses I was enabled to watch the movements 

 of the different kinds of waders — grey, green, and ring 

 plover, curlew, redshanks, knots, oyster-catchers, and 

 herons — while a great flock of oxbirds passed restlessly 

 over the serrated margin of the flats, now appearing 

 like a dark cloud rising up from the surface of the North 

 Sea, and now like a volume of white mountain-mist as, 

 with the precision of a well-drilled battalion of infantry, 

 they displayed alternately the dark plumage of their 

 backs and then their snow-white under parts, during 

 rapid flight. Out on the main, beyond the treacherous 

 sand-ridge upon which the timbers of many a gallant 

 vessel lie bleaching, were to be seen several companies of 

 mallard, widgeon, and pintail ; while still farther out a 

 goodly herd of brent geese floated motionless and ap- 

 parently asleep after feasting upon the succulent roots 



