52 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



of the sandy soil in which they lurked. To an 

 unpractised eye it seemed nothing short of mar- 

 vellous, when walking across a tract of ooze which 

 looked " as bare as a billiard table," to see my com- 

 panion suddenly stop, stoop down, plunge his fore- 

 finger into the sand, and scoop out a cockle, which 

 till then had been to me invisible. His quick eye 

 had detected the tiny worm-like hole which 

 indicated the presence of the moUusk, and long 

 practice enabled him to distinguish the contracted 

 tunnel through which the cockle had passed from 

 any other hole, or the boring of a Sandpiper. 



But to return to the inn, with its lattice windows 

 and sanded floors ; the lodging was rough, but it 

 was clean ; and after a tramp of ten miles in the 

 marshes after Snipe and Duck, or a hard day's work 

 in the punt after Plover or Black Geese, it would be 

 strange if a man could not sleep well, even though 

 his room might lack a carpet. 



Those who have read the works of the late Mr 

 A. E. Knox — and who that is fond of sport and 

 natural history has not ? — will recollect the many 

 passages in which allusion is made to Pagham 

 Harbour, either as the scene of a good day's wild- 

 fowl shooting, or of some interesting ornithological 

 observation. Residing, as he did, for some time in 

 a cottage between Bognor and Pagham, this once 

 famous harbour was his "happy hunting ground." 



It was upon the long shingle beach that ran 

 across the harbour's mouth that he used to lie and 

 watch the wildfowl coming in from the sea to rest 

 and feed after their long journeys from the north. 



