THE BIRDS OF DUNGENESS. 215 



horizontally ; in other places there are considerable clumps of 

 holly and elder bushes, trimmed off to a regular shape on the 

 seaward side by the wind. On the outskirts of the beach there 

 are many patches of gorse, which give a vivid mass of yellow 

 when they are in bloom ; and the sombreness of the beach is 

 otherwise relieved by beds of thrift and numerous solitary fox- 

 gloves, and nearer the sea by thriving plants of sea-holly and 

 horned poppies with their yellow blooms. The more recently 

 formed ridges are all beginning to show a faint tinge of green, 

 caused by straggling blades of fine grass, which must obtain what 

 nourishment they need from the decomposition of the minute 

 lichen or moss with which most of the stones on the surface of 

 the beach are covered. This scanty beginning of a soil is added 

 to year after year by the dead grass-blades, until there is a 

 sufficient collection to give growth to larger plants. Apart from 

 the birds, the chief living wild creatures to be seen on this waste 

 of stones are Hares, which are numerous, a few Rabbits, and a 

 good many Grass-Snakes. 



The expanse of marsh land stretches back for miles, its limits 

 being almost accurately defined by the military canal, which runs 

 from Hythe to Rye and Winchelsea. This marsh land is a 

 perfect network of ditches, which drain off and carry away the 

 surface water from the soil, emptying themselves into bigger 

 channels (generally called " sewers "), which in their turn empty 

 themselves through sluice-gates into the sea. Many of these 

 sewers run through low-lying flats, where they spread out beyond 

 their banks, forming swampy places often overgrown with reeds, 

 and making a favourite haunt for Wild Ducks, Moorhens, Coots, 

 and Dabchicks. There are not many roads in this marsh, and 

 where the ornithologist finds most to interest him there are no 

 roads at all, so that he often has practical proof that the shortest 

 way home, after his day's tramp, is a very long way round, owing 

 to the difficulty of finding the various planks and foot-bridges by 

 which to cross the ditches and sewers. 



From Jury's Gap to near Rye the marsh land runs close up 

 to the sea-front, a large tract of sand-hills forming a barrier be- 

 tween it and the sea in one part, embankments and the ridge of 

 pebbles thrown up by the tide protecting it elsewhere. In these 

 sand-hills, the fishermen tell one, Sheld-Duck used to nest years 



