THE FLATS 43 



the mud and facing one another in two long lines. The 

 blackbacks were greatly in the majority and were all 

 facing one way, head to wind, as is usual with gulls, 

 and in the manner of lapwings and fieldfares, producing 

 a strong effect in their alternating blacks and whites. 

 Then one great mass rose up, as it seemed, and possibly 

 was, by telepathic suggestion, by a sudden rushing 

 wind of common impulse, made a half-circle and joined 

 forces with the other, creating such a confusion that 

 the whole multitude was lifted ponderously up, and 

 out of the cloud came threading the herring gulls like 

 strands pulled out of a skein, their silver-grey wings 

 gleaming in the level rays of the sun, and leaving the 

 black volume to come foundering down again upon 

 the yellow sand. Why the two species thus separated 

 I cannot pretend to guess, but enough for me were the 

 power and grandeur of the spectacle. Had the species 

 been blackheads, the sight would have been less impres- 

 sive, their flight being much less steady and determined. 



A minute later, seven goldfinches rose out of the thistles 

 growing alongside the turf-banks, in no wise less beautiful 

 than the gulls, but displaying their refinement and 

 elegance in nature's shop-window, as though she were 

 a kind of Whiteley's, advertising simultaneously things 

 impressive for their splendour and appealing for their 

 grace — except that the purpose of the one is money, 

 of the other only life and beauty. The blackbacks 

 were in the habit of pursuing the smaller gulls (black- 

 heads, and perhaps " common," practically indistinguish- 

 able in autumn and winter) in the same way and apparently 

 with the same object as skuas pursue terns and other 

 species. It would be worth while finding out whether 

 the bigger gulls — notable poachers — are not sometimes 

 experimentally parasitic upon their weaker cousins in 

 the skua manner. Skuas have specialized in this form 

 of commercialism, but there is no reason why they 

 should not have apprentices.^ 



Another impression of volume was a flock of about 

 a thousand starlings trailing high up above the pastures 

 like a black, stippled cloud. They were not at their 

 1 See p. 112. 



