298 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



by the very edge of the receding sea. The birds 

 of the sands and mud-flats are shy and wary 

 enough in winter ; not one is to be seen within a 

 quarter of a mile of where we are standing ; but 

 they have left their "cards" behind them on the 

 shore, and we can read from them the story of 

 their lives. Here the mud for a space of many 

 square yards has been trampled into a rough, un- 

 even surface. What birds are these, which in 

 crowded assemblage have left their marks behind 

 them ? On the edge of this mass of footprints 

 there are several impressions clear and sharply 

 defined as when the birds stamped them on the 

 muds. They are broad and webbed, the tell-tale 

 mark of Geese ; and see, some of them are much 

 smaller than others, a sure indication that the 

 flock was a mixed one and composed of several 

 species. A few feathers left sticking in the mud 

 and floating on the neighbouring tide-pool show 

 that Brent Geese have been here. An assembly 

 of Geese has been sleeping here, waiting on the 

 higher ground for the tide to ebb. They have 

 now gone off to feed even as we are examining 

 their footprints the familiar gag, gag, gag, sounds 

 faintly from afar, where the noisy host are making 

 their morning meal. We notice more webbed 

 footprints farther on ; larger ones still this 

 time, and undoubtedly made by Swans. These 

 impressions are also of different sizes, the larger 

 ones being six inches or more from heel to toe, 

 the smaller ones an inch less. By our knowledge 



