226 



THE OPAL SEA 



Long- 

 legged 

 waders. 



Flamin- 

 goes. 



And they all live by the sea and follow the 

 fisher's calling. 



Beside these plungers and paddlers, there 

 are long-legged waders that are continually pa- 

 trolling the beaches or crossing the inlets or 

 standing silently in the bays waiting for fish 

 to pass. They have great curved necks that 

 seem to draw out like telescopes, and bayonet 

 bills that thrust, catch, and toss in the most 

 expert manner. With appetites that relish al- 

 most everything, and crops that can digest 

 almost anything, they allow little to pass un- 

 scathed along their highways. Whatever lives 

 on or by the sea is grist for their mill. The 

 beautiful rose-red flamingo, with the misshapen 

 beak that would seem to handicap him in pur- 

 suit of prey, is one of the ablest of these hunt- 

 ers. The beak is little more than a box, the 

 edges of which are guarded by lameUce, and 

 the food (composed of the smaller salt water 

 snails) is sifted through the box in a not very 

 different manner from that in which the ba- 

 Iffinid whale strains sea life through his whale- 

 bone mesh. He wades the marshes, works with 

 his head and bill "upside down," so that the 

 upper mandible shovels through the bottom 

 mud ; and though ungainly he is far from being 

 ill-fed. 



