60 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



them passive protection, or, at any rate, do not show 

 annoyance when one, bolder than the rest, filches a small 

 fish from a pile upon the beach, and will often throw an 

 attractive piece of gut towards the envious herring-gulls. 

 Perhaps there are other reasons. In a land where belief 

 in the " little people " still lingers, it is possible that 

 education has not eliminated the ancient fable that the 

 beautiful birds, their constant companions, may be 

 reincarnations of long-lost friends. 



At Beer a stream runs down the steep street and dives 

 beneath the shingle beach through a culvert. Of course, 

 it is not a sewer, but an open brook is a temptation, and 

 all sorts of discarded scraps are borne seaward. Some 

 yards from the beach is the outfall, where the fresh water 

 bubbles up even when the tide is full; at this spot a little 

 gathering collects, herrings and black-heads, rising and 

 falling on the waves or hovering a few feet above to watch 

 for any edible morsel which may float to the surface. 

 It is not a peaceful gathering, and when one red bill has 

 seized an ascending treasure the corvine calls of annoyance 

 from other black-heads suggest a rookery rather than a 

 congregation of gulls. Some of the herring-gulls are 

 smarter than their smaller companions, and by clumsy 

 dives succeed in securing the still submerged scraps. 

 Black-heads will remain fighting for these uncertain 

 bits of refuse when piles of tempting offal lie on the beach, 

 awaiting the next cleansing tide, but common and herring 

 gulls wait on the fishermen and follow the auctioneer from 

 pile to pile of fish. 



Along the wet sands of Tor Bay the razor-shell hunters 

 walk backward with short steps of bare feet, basket on 

 back and probe in hand ; they feel the shells beneath their 

 feet, and perhaps bring them to the surface as the deadly 

 " jumbo " brings up the cockles. So, too, the herring- 

 gulls understand the art of paddling. In the tide wash 



