CHAPTER VI 



AT THE ESTUARY 



THE estuary has a powerful charm for the sportsman 

 on January nights, when the tide is running out, 

 and the moon barely shows through scud or formless 

 cloud. The sands look as if lightly covered with 

 fresh fallen snow. Coming thither with my gun 

 after dark, I have half thought for the moment that 

 snow has actually been falling, the ground all about 

 being so wan. At dusk the curlews and dunlins 

 will come out from the river to spend the night 

 on these sands about the time the ducks are going 

 inland from the sea to spend the night on mudflat 

 and marsh. The hours and habits of waders and 

 water-fowl may vary slightly in different parts of 

 the coast, but I suspect that this move-in of the 

 ducks and move-out of the curlews is general. Then 

 at daybreak the ducks come out to sea and the 

 curlews go in. This is the ordinary roosting and 

 feeding rule of the birds: the ducks roost by day 

 on the sea well out in the open water if it is calm, 

 near in by the harbour bar if rough and they feed 

 by night on the marshes and mudflats ; whereas 

 the curlews roost by night on the sands when the 



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