. Song birds and water fowl . e-fore an in-rolling wave, these creatures are notat all timid, when sure of its depth ; and theywade fearlessly through the pools formed in thedepressions of the sand, even when almost deepenough for swimming. I hope these little friendsof mine have some poetic sense of their sur-roundings, in habitually lingering by the sea;but appearances indicate that their impulse isof a grosser sort, and that they are only afterthe bodily refreshment thrown on the shore byevery tide. A curious and interesting chapter could bewritten on the intimate connection existing be-twe
. Song birds and water fowl . e-fore an in-rolling wave, these creatures are notat all timid, when sure of its depth ; and theywade fearlessly through the pools formed in thedepressions of the sand, even when almost deepenough for swimming. I hope these little friendsof mine have some poetic sense of their sur-roundings, in habitually lingering by the sea;but appearances indicate that their impulse isof a grosser sort, and that they are only afterthe bodily refreshment thrown on the shore byevery tide. A curious and interesting chapter could bewritten on the intimate connection existing be-tween facts apparently standing in no kind ofrelationship, in the economy of nature. Oneinstance of the sort would be, the purposes,more numerous and important than at firstappears, served by the oceanic tides; one ofthem being that, by the endless circulationof the water near the shore, vegetable andanimal growth is both promoted and thrownupon the beach, thereby maintaining the lifeof water fowl. Marine ornithology is thus 176. At the Waters Edge brought into unexpected dependence upon themoon. A few days later, on the same beach, I hadthe quite unusual opportunity of seeing an im-mense migration-wave of gulls, passing closeby the shore. They were evidently not anx-ious to make a short journey of it, otherwisethey would have cut across from Cape May toMontauk Point, instead of skirting along theentire coast of New Jersey and Long Island. They did not form one solid group, in theirflight, as wild geese often do, but passed along,sometimes in a continuous stream, at othertimes in detached flocks in close succession,varying in numbers from ten to forty, and oc-casionally in such compact masses as to bequite imposing. For the most part they flewvery close to the water, as when skimmingthe surface for food; but one flock of aboutseventy-five passed high overhead and descend-ed to the water farther on. Being interestedto form an estimate of the entire number, Icounted one hundred and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishern, booksubjectbirds
