Birds by Land and Sea 



into closer touch with the sheld-duck farther round 

 the headland. 



Outside the field where these sheld-ducks feed, 

 martins and swallows might always be seen perching 

 upon the telegraph-wires that run above the road. 

 I picked up one of the former from the ground 

 immediately beneath the wire, uninjured externally, 

 but quite, although only just, dead. 



Upon the same wires a corn-bunting used to sit 

 every day, and all day, uttering its monotonous note. 

 It is, hard to imagine a corn-bunting without its 

 beloved telegraph-wire. A bird of his temperament 

 must be as good as an insulator. 



After turning a rocky point here, one enters the 

 bay where the Penmon quarries are. Here we saw 

 at different times a pair of lesser terns, and watched 

 long, but fruitlessly, in the hope of discovering their 

 nest on the shingle-clad beach. We were the readier 

 to believe that the nest might be near because we 

 observed the male bird bringing fish to his partner. 

 If the sea has anything daintier than this little eight- 

 inch sea-swallow, with his white body, pearl-grey 

 mantle, and black cap, and orange bill and legs, I 

 have yet to find it. White and lissom, with fine- 

 drawn bill and tapering wings, it would seem almost 

 as if the purity of his plumage had come of his 

 frequent divings in the sea, and the low smooth 

 curves of head and body from the attrition of the 

 water as he shot through it to seize his prey. The 

 bird came into sight with a thin shrill scream, the 



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