A GIFT OF GOD 27 



will hang in the wind for a few seconds in a compact 

 mass ten yards from the ground. Then the flock 

 narrows into a long streamer, coiling in a beautiful 

 wavy line through the sky. During this opening 

 out the birds move slowly. Then they appear to 

 stop dead for a moment or two every dunlin simul- 

 taneously. They draw together next moment into 

 a bunch as before, and suddenly, with tremendous 

 speed, cut down, almost striking the pebbles; but, 

 eddying, swirling, they cut up again, hang in the 

 wind, and slowly serpentine out into the wavy line. 



Presently, after this figure has been cut and re-cut 

 just above the beach, the dunlins leave the shore and 

 dash out to sea. There they will cut and glance, and 

 hang and ribbon and mass just as they have been 

 doing over the land. 



And they will sheet themselves, these wondrous 

 birds, and, dropping low, dash a hundred yards into 

 the wind, moving all the while only just above the 

 white-tipped waves ! 



Whilst swiftly serpentining thus over the sea, their 

 bodies and wings must all but brush the water, yet 

 they seem never quite to touch it; to fly swiftly 

 at a dead level is as easy to the dunlins as any of 

 their wing feats. Not a bird need wet a feather, 

 though only a few inches divide the flock from the 

 sea over which it is dashing and swerving at such 

 a high pace. Fisher-folk have told me tales of the 

 baffling of the sparrowhawk by the dunlin or sander- 



