As day broke he had looked out for them in hopes of getting a shot.

Even had they been gulls, he would have been glad of one or two for breakfast.

But there were no birds in sight, not even gulls.
Saloo now told them that the screams heard during the night did not come from sea-fowl, but from birds of a very different kind, that had their home in the forest, and only came to the sea-coast during their season of breeding; that their presence was for this purpose, and therefore denoted the proximity of their nests.
While they were yet speaking on the subject, their eyes were suddenly attracted to a number of the very birds about which they were in converse.

There was quite a flock of them--nearly fifty in all.

They were not roosted upon the trees, nor flying through the air, but stepping along the sandy beach with a sedate yet stately tread, just like barn-door fowl on their march toward a field of freshly-sown grain, here and there stooping to pick up some stray seed.