The Surf -bird 



by rising. "Snap" went the latch, and "roar" went the shutter, till the 

 first relay of plates, carried in the game pocket of an old hunting coat, 

 was exhausted. 



Retracing my steps as cautiously as I had come, I secured another 

 batch of plates and returned to the fray. This time I succeeded in reach- 

 ing the reef itself and in lessening the distance to some forty feet — a score 

 of Surf-birds at forty feet! They rose at length, for there were timorous 

 souls among them, but they returned or ever I had reached the base of 



Taken near Santa L 

 Photo by the Author 



SURF-BIRDS— SHIFTING 



supplies. The tide was low and the quarry safe, so we indulged a much 

 belated cold lunch of bread-and-butter, omelette, and cake, all sugared 

 impartially with fine sand. Then I resumed the quest, pausing only to 

 note that the Surf-birds were themselves busily engaged in feeding upon 

 the white barnacles which covered the reef. These seemed to form their 

 exclusive diet for the time; and it was interesting to see a bird get a good 

 grip on a reluctant cirriped, then brace and haul him out by main force. 

 It was yeoman service, and many a bill was smeared with bug juice, not 

 to mention "biramous cirri" and other delicate crustacean apparatus. 



There were about twenty of the birds, twenty-three to be exact, and 

 one Black Turnstone kept with them most of the time, although he might 

 have found plenty of his own kind not far away. Once the Surf-birds 

 deserted him and left him trembling on the rock; but I was unprepared to 

 utilize the superb pose which his lonely plight presented a moment later, 

 and he made off with startled cries. As for the Surf-birds, as often as 

 they were dislodged they retired to a strip of sand a few rods away and 

 fell to gleaning like pipers. 



1336 



