90 ORALLY. 



detach and cast to the strand a greater number and variety 

 of esculent matters ; and though the birds are driven inland 

 for shelter during the violence of the storm, they speedily 

 throng back to the beach when that is over, to feast on the 

 supplies which it has collected. That supply consists of various 

 matters ; of the spawn of fishes, which has been ploughed 

 up from the banks, or wafted ashore in cases where it is com- 

 mitted to the open sea ; of fry in the very young state ; and 

 of innumerable small marine animals that come ashore upon 

 .uprooted sea-weeds, loosened stones, and in the general accu- 

 mulations of sand, ooze, and other debris, which the troubled 

 waters roll about while in agitation, and ultimately leave on 

 the beaches deposited in the order of gravitation, and conse- 

 quently with the organic portion uppermost, as being lighter 

 than the earthy matters. 



Nor are the land floods unserviceable in adding to these 

 winter stores ; for they sweep from the beds, and out of the 

 torn banks of the rivers, a vast multitude of little animals 

 which had got beyond the reach of the birds ; and these are 

 found in great abundance on the oozy banks, and in the oozy 

 beds of the shallows of estuaries and creeks. But these latter 

 accumulations of winter food are in places rather soft for the 

 feet of the grallae ; so that they fall more to the lot of the 

 swimming birds, which crowd to such places during the 

 winter season. 



In Britain, the grallse which subsist chiefly by fishing, 

 and which are the true waders, are not so much subjected to 

 those migrations. Their prey being in the clear water, they 

 frequent the banks of rivers, and the shallow margins of 

 lakes, where these are comparatively clear of reeds and other 

 tall herbage ; and as there is no cover for them there, they 

 usually nestle in trees ; and unless when the sky is very 

 lowering, or when a flood has left the meadows partially 

 covered with pools in the hollows, which act as so many 



