SANDLINGS 107 



leave an impression that, in nature, nothing 

 is impossible. 



In the bird kingdom, as elsewhere, we note 

 that some species are better bred, so to speak, 

 than others; their habits are more refined. 

 These are clean feeders, whose costumes are 

 compact and well fitting; the very texture 

 thereof is of superior quality. These, indeed, 

 belong to bird aristocracy. Of this class are 

 plovers and their congeners, whose nervous 

 system, no doubt, is correspondingly taut and 

 responds readily to subconscious impulses. 



Some of the smaller shore birds, such as 

 stints, dunhn, sandlings and ringed-plover, 

 are models of elegance, so spick-and-span is 

 their plumage. The flight of these birds is 

 comparable to that of the plovers last men- 

 tioned. When alighting on the shingle the 

 birds mingle with the stones, so that it is 

 difficult to distinguish them from the sur- 

 roundings. Thus, with heads all turned in the 

 same direction, they stand rigid ; on the 

 slightest alarm they rise instantly and are off 

 again. But when all is quiet the birds are seen 

 to disperse, running hither and thither over 

 sand and stones in search of food and, in this 

 way, become separated to some extent. It 

 is then, I take it, that the bonds of telepathy 

 are relaxed, when each bird acts for himself. 



