110 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



If all the yarns of the old Breydon fowlers are to 

 be believed, these bh'ds must in days gone by have 

 visited the mudflats in that district in countless thou- 

 sands. At the present day their numbers have sadly 

 fallen off, as I have often spent the whole of May, 

 from daylight till dark, on the mudbanks, without 

 seeing more than two or three hundred pass during 

 the month. 



The flight time commences about the beginning of 

 May, the 12th to the 15th being usually considered 

 the best days ; the date, however, varies with the wind, 

 east- south-east, east, and east-north-east being the 

 most favourable quarters. Should the wind continue 

 west or south-west during the w^hole of May, it is 

 quite possible that hardly a bird will be seen. When 

 this is the case, their line of flight appears to miss our 

 shores entirely. I have on two or three occasions 

 observed large flocks passing twenty or thirty miles 

 from land; and some of the fishermen, who w^ere old 

 gunners, have assured me that they have met with all 

 the different species of Waders in continual flights for 

 several days outside the Dogger-bank, while their 

 usual quarters on the mudbanks were completely de- 

 serted. 



The specimens in the case were shot on Breydon 

 mudflats, on May 12th, 1871. 



BAR-TAILED GODWIT.— (Autumn.) 



Case 120. 



This case represents the young as they appear on their 

 first arrival in this country, from their breeding-grounds 

 in the far north. 



