50 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



is no sand left for them. Some seek the Dee banks and 

 marsh, where they must keep a sharp look-out for danger; 

 but others wisely repair to the rocks round the islets, 

 where they are safe, for shooting is here illegal. 



When from Hilbre to the Red Rocks was one unbroken 

 sheet of water and the gutter which cut us off from the 

 land a rushing torrent, our sport began. Our weapons, 

 no deadlier than field-glass and telescope, were at hand; 

 our coats, fortunately superfluous, spread behind a sandy 

 rampart, we peeped over the bank, levelling glasses on the 

 noisy crowd which lined the ever swelling Swash. Middle 

 Hilbre was alive with birds; they crowded, black masses 

 over its lower rocks, whilst herring, common gulls, and 

 black-heads flitted uneasily over the racing waters, wailing 

 and scolding, as if annoyed that their hunt for food was 

 deferred. A twittering flock of linnets danced in the air 

 round the Eye for a few minutes, then made for the 

 Cheshire shore, but two land birds, a young wheatear 

 and a song thrush, were on the island when we arrived, 

 and we left them there; they were reluctant to leave their 

 island oasis. Both, doubtless, had selected it as a resting- 

 place on their southward journey. 



The oyster-catcher, better known to the Dee shrimpers 

 as the " sea-pie," has a single note, described in the 

 books as peep or kleep, which is shortened to an angry pic 

 when the bird is disturbed on its breeding-ground. When 

 twenty or thirty of these beautiful black-and-white birds 

 fly past, calling in harmony, the combined peeps are very 

 musical, though feeble and uninteresting compared with 

 the concert of three or four hundred individuals singing 

 together over their meal at the edge of the tide. No 

 word picture can adequately describe the thrilling music 

 of the sand-banks; the curlew's wild clear call, the triple 

 note of the whimbrel, the sharp bark of the godwit, the 

 liquid whistle of the grey plover, the purr of the dunlin, 



