174 THE RECENT BIRD TRACKS 
clam shell turns up (Mya arenaria Linn.), and perhaps a 
little thin round and flat shell (Macoma fusca Say), 
while a little univalve shell ( Littorina rudis Mont.) is not 
uncommonly found attached to the blades of sedge. 
“Fudge !” says our companion, looking at his but half- 
visible boots, “we might have chosen a better locality for 
an excursion than this. Lets go back for a ramble among 
the hills.” “Not so fast, my friend, we’ve come down here 
to take a lesson from Nature, and we’ll find something in- 
teresting by and by.” By dint of wading through the mud, 
leaping across ditches, an exploit rendered somewhat diffi- 
cult owing to the tenacity of the mud, which makes jump- 
ing out of one’s boots something easy to accomplish, we 
reach a sedgy tract, and this crossed, we are by the side of 
the river. The tide is out, and a scene like that we wit- 
nessed on the Avon, at Windsor, meets the eye. The bank 
slopes rather steeply from its top to the bed of the river. 
The warm sun has dried and cracked the mud on the sur- 
face along the upper edge of the bank, and it is divided 
into polygonal pieces by a network of cracks, like that of 
a dried up mud-puddle, and the upper layers are curled 
up a little so as to be partially separated from those un- 
derneath. This cracked and dried part forms a zone 
running along the whole bank, and extending downwards 
some distance below high tide mark. In the lower part 
the bank is always soft. Crack! goes a gun. We look 
around and see a, sportsman not far off, the blue wreath 
of smoke from his piece fast drifting over the dyke, while 
an immense flock of “Marsh Peeps” (Tringa minuta), is 
whirling around him, now almost invisible, now flashing 
up like a cloud of snow-flakes, as they take a different 
tack, exposing their white breasts. In certain seasons 
of the year this little bird is very numerous on this shore, 
