From Fox's Earth 



the beetling cliffs, the deepening purple of the hori- 

 zon where sea approaches sky. As the osprey 

 of the inland sheet, so is the tern the idyll of 

 the shore. 



Neither reaches very deep. No impetus is 

 there to bear them, save the fall of so many feet. 

 By a sort of nervous eagerness the tern seems to 

 force itself down, and it has all the advantage 

 of the cleaner dive. Still it must grade its force 

 where the sand almost kisses the surface. The 

 osprey may make up for the less clean impact by 

 the greater height of its poise. Seldom does 

 the tern dive from more than thirty or forty feet. 

 Both are migrants, idylls of the summer waters. 

 Like the osprey, the tern leaves for the winter. 



Different from either is another bird. The 

 solan goose is a native. It lights the grey 

 atmosphere, and breaks the grey water of winter. 

 Perhaps the light and flash are more marked 

 against the sombre background. It is the idyll 

 of the deep, as the tern of the shallows, and the 

 osprey of the lakes. It is the idyll of the dark 

 months, as they of the bright ones. 



Ample is the area. The solan goose fishes 

 after a manner of its own, adapted to the sea. 

 There is no slow circling search. It comes on 

 at a great rate, looking down by the way. No 

 poise nor focus is there. Nor does it simply 

 close the wings and drop. The glitter that catches 

 its eye may be fathoms deep, and it must get 



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