On the Seashore | Page 5

rock-pool is like a prison
containing prisoners of the strangest sort.
[Illustration: GULLS. 1. COMMON GULLS. 2. LESSER BLACK
GULL. 3. GLAUCOUS GULLS.]
EXERCISES
1. How is the sand formed?
2. Give the names of some of the animals to be found in the rock-pools.
3. Where do these animals hide?
4. Prawns and shore-crabs are not easily seen; why is this?

LESSON III.
BIRDS OF THE SHORE.
On some parts of our coast we find steep cliffs, with the sea beating

wildly at their feet. Elsewhere there is a sloping beach of sand and
shingle with, perhaps, dark rocks showing at low tide. We explored
such a beach as that in our last lesson. There are long, long stretches of
sand and thin grass in other places, or else mile after mile of muddy,
dreary, salt marshes.
Birds are to be found on every kind of coast. Some, like the Seagull,
wander far and wide. Others keep to the cliffs, and many find all they
need in the wide mud-flats. Such an army is there of these shore birds,
that we cannot even glance at them all in this lesson. So we will take a
few of them only--the Black-headed Gull, the Cormorant, the Ringed
Plover, the Oyster-catcher and the Redshank.
Out of all the many kinds of Gulls, you know the Black-headed one
best. If you live in London you can see and hear him, for he and his
cousins have swarmed along the Thames of late years. They find food
there, and kind people enjoy feeding the screaming birds as they wheel
in graceful flight over the bridges and Embankment.
The country boy, too, sees this Gull. He flies far inland, following the
plough, and he then rids the land of many a harmful grub. Because of
this habit, some people call him the Sea-crow. At all seaside places you
find him, and there he fights for his meals with the Herring Gull, the
Common Gull, the Kittiwake and others.
Really we should call this gull the Brown-headed, not the Black-headed,
Gull; for the hood is more brown than black; and again, if you look for
this bird during your summer holidays, you will see no dark hood on
his head. You might, though, know him then by the red legs and bill,
and the white front-edging to his lovely pearly-grey wings.
Look at him in January, however, and you see dark feathers beginning
to appear on his head. The fact is, this dark hood is the bird's wedding
dress. It comes only when the nesting season draws near. Then he
leaves the fields, parks, and rivers, to fly away to the nesting-place.
These Gulls love to nest in colonies--that is, near one another. Among
rushes and reeds, and rough grass growing in deep wet mud, they feel

that their nests are safe. There they lay three eggs. The chicks, almost
as soon as they leave the eggs, can run about. If there is no dry land
near the nest, these youngsters tumble in the water and swim without
bothering about swimming lessons.
In summer they are ready to fly with their parents round the coast, and
to the muddy mouths of large rivers, where they feed. Flocks of them
are also seen out in the open sea, feeding on the shoals of small fish.
They also follow steamers, for the sake of any scraps thrown overboard,
and they crowd round the fishing boats when they are being unloaded.
You see, they are scavengers, and so are to be found wherever there are
waste scraps of food.
Perhaps you have noticed that Gulls float high in the sea, like so many
corks. They can leave the water easily, and take to flight; but they
cannot dive. The Gull's dinner-table is the whole coast. His eyes are
keen enough, as you will know if you have watched him swoop down
on a piece of bread in mid-air, and catch it neatly in his beak.
The flight of this Gull is beautiful, graceful, and easy. Sometimes he
wheels up and up into the blue sky, almost without moving a wing. He
can also glide for a great while, balancing his body against the wind,
and turning his head from side to side on the look-out for food. Those
long, pointed wings of his make him one of Nature's most perfect
flying-machines. His wild, laughing cry has given him the nickname of
Laughing Gull.
In the fields and along the banks of our big rivers you may see the
Common Gull with numbers of his black-headed cousins. His beak and
legs and webbed feet are greenish yellow, and this is quite enough to
distinguish the two birds. Their habits are much the same. Both skim
over the sea, or the coast,