The Bird Book 



abound, and the little "wide-awake" Ringed 

 Plover mingles largely in their flocks, busying 

 himself in acting sentinel and watching over the 

 safety of the whole party. Small flocks of Red- 

 shank fly swiftly up the " loughs " to feed inland 

 and return to the shore as the tide recedes. 

 Bands of Golden Plover rove along, whistling as 

 they go, and occasionally a lonely Greenshank is 

 seen. He is rather larger than the Redshank and, 

 apart from the colour of his legs, which gives him 

 his name, he may be distinguished by his up- 

 turned bill. Here are Godwit, and there the 

 grey-coloured Knot, familiar enough to shore- 

 shooters, but the mystery of its nesting habits is not 

 yet thoroughly solved. 



A few hundred yards out to sea are large 

 flocks of diving duck of varied plumage ; some 

 are Goldeneyes, some are pure white, and 

 numbers no doubt are hybrids. There they sit 

 and sleep or preen their feathers, waiting for 

 darkness to fall and the time arrives for them 

 to fly to feed on some stubble field. Well do the 

 gunners know this habit. They know, too, that 

 the duck pass up some particular gully at no great 

 height above the cliffs, and many an unsuspecting 

 bird forfeits its life to pay toll for the passage of 

 the rest. 



Hooded Crows prowl along in search of food 

 cast up by the sea, be it fish or fowl , nothing 

 seems to come amiss. Carrion Crows, too, seem 

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