OCTOBER 203 



crests of the waves. After such a night, when it has 

 been blowing great guns, we have seen the Grey 

 Phalaropes swimming amongst the tangle of drifted 

 sea-wrack, paddling about like miniature ducks, 

 though far more lightly and trim-built, long-winged and 

 swift of flight as a plover. 



Amongst the Kittiwakes, whose presence in the bay 

 is always an indication of dirty weather outside, one 

 may detect the rare and beautiful Sabine's Gull. We 

 have known a west coast bird-stuffer to have nearly 

 a dozen of them through his hands in one week of 

 wild autumn weather. Similar conditions sometimes 

 bring a flight of the dark-plumaged robber-gulls known 

 as Skuas, which make their living by forcing the true 

 gulls to disgorge their finny spoil. 



A keen October morning which has opened with a 

 white frost is always associated with the " shack 

 shack, shack" of the first Fieldfares as they pass 

 overhead or rise from the meadows as their sentinels 

 in the tree-tops shriek a chattering alarm. At the 

 sound how memory reverts to their summer haunts 

 amongst the birch-woods which fringe the Norwegian 

 fjords. Wary birds are the blue-backed " felts," 

 first object of pursuit of many a youthful gunner. 

 Rarely does the stalk under cover of the well-berried 

 hawthorn hedge prove successful ; snow, frost and 

 scanty fare must tame their spirits before they will 

 allow of a sufficiently near approach. The smaller 



