72 FEATHERED GAME 
treating wave to seize the choice bits thrown 
up and stranded on the edges. They run 
nimbly and gracefully about in an eager 
scramble for their rations, searching seaweed 
and drift stuff for the myriad wrigglers found 
therein. Yet, let the gunner peep ever so care- 
fully over the edge of the bank where he lies 
hidden and each wary feeder becomes at once 
a motionless statue. Had he not seen their 
animation a moment before he might think he 
had come upon a wooden congregation of de- 
ecoys. While he is still they make no move- 
ment, but let him stir, either for nearer ap- 
proach or to draw back from view that he may 
get a better position, and the instant his head 
goes out of sight behind the long salt grass 
the flock noiselessly takes wing with easy, 
graceful flight, alighting some hundreds of 
yards away to feed comfortably until the dan- 
gerous admirer, with stealthy caution and much 
toilsome trudging through the shifting sand 
dunes once more approaches too near for 
safety, when the same performance again takes 
place. It makes little difference how the ap- 
proach is managed, the result is generally the 
same; the gunner peers cautiously at the spot 
