68 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



as at any other time ; it is the nature of the bird to 

 be so. Those who have met with him on dreary 

 shores where he certainly has never had cause to 

 suspect mischief, have found him as wary there as 

 on our own shores. Even in hard times, — hard for 

 all created things, — when the starved birds wailed 

 and cried, and their feeding-grounds were un- 

 covered only to freeze again before they could get 

 their crops a quarter full, they were as suspicious as 

 ever ; although no one shot at them, for the simple 

 reason that they were not worth wasting powder and 

 shot over. They had just got strength to flit from 

 place to place, and that was all. When the weather 

 did break, in about three days they were as brisk as 

 ever, for this class of birds feeds day and night after 

 a fast, as the tide serves, in order to make up for 

 short commons. 



I do not wish my readers to think that I have 

 braved worse weather on the coast than other people, 

 but I have been out when the weather was quite 

 bad enough, by night and by day. I have seen 

 statements made that certain fowl feed by day, 

 others by night ; I know this is true, as a rule, but 

 there are no hard-and-fast rules with shore-birds or 

 water-fowl ; they feed how and when they can best 

 get it. When the Gulls rush on the fields like Rooks, 

 and feed there, one may see great grey and white 

 patches of them. Shore-birds go on short food. I 

 have seen three feet of shingle on some of their feeding- 

 spots, and there it remained until a contrary tide to 

 the one that had hurled it there swept it away again. 



