ugh the marshy levels were now stiffened with frost,
and ice fringes lingered thin and brittle behind each retreating tide,
and white flurries of snow went drifting over the vast, windy spaces of
wave and plain, some bold, persistent waifs of life clung to these bleak
solitudes. Here and there a straggler from the flocks, or a belated
arrival from farther north, fed solitary and seemed sufficient to
himself; while here and there a few hardy coots, revelling in the
loneliness and in the forbidding harshness of the season, swam and dived
among the low, leaden-coloured waves.

Across ten level miles of naked marsh-land another estuary made in from
the sea. On the shore of this estuary, so shallow that for leagues along
its edge it was impossible to distinguish, at high tide, just where the
water ended and the solid land began, a solitary surf-duck dabbled among
the gray, half-frozen grasses. Of a dull black all over, save for a
patch of clear white on his head and another on the back of his neck, he
made a sharp, conspicuous spot against the pallid colouring of the
marshes. For all his loneliness, he seemed to be enjoying himself very
well, active and engrossed, and to all appearances forgetful of the
departed flocks.

Suddenly, however, he stopped feeding, and sat with head erect and
watchful eyes, rising and falling gently with the pulse of the
sedge-choked flood. Either some unusual sight or sound had disturbed
him, or some drift of memory had stirred his restlessness. For several
minutes he floated, forgetful of the savoury shelled and squirming
creatures which his discriminating bill had been gathering from among
the oozy sedge-roots. Then with an abrupt squawk, he flapped noisily
along the surface of the water, rose into the air, and flew straight
inland, mounting as he went to a height far above gunshot.

The flight of the lonely drake was toward the shores of the other
estuary, ten miles southward, where in all likelihood he had some hope
of finding the companionship of his kin, if not a better feeding-ground.
Though his body was very heavy and massive and his wings ridiculously
short for the bulk they had to sustain, he flew with tremendous speed
and as straight as a bullet from a rifle. His wings, however small, were
mightily muscled and as tough as steel springs, and they beat the air
with such lightning strokes that the sturdy body, head and neck and legs
and feet outstretched in a rigid line, was hurled thro