A Lincolnshire Mud=flat 171) 



five or six miles over very bad ground, tlie bags getting 

 heavier and heavier as we proceed, we are by no means 

 sorry to get back to tlie village and a good breakfast. 



The take has not been anything very great — the bulk 

 of the birds being 151ack-headed and Common CtuIIs, one 

 immature Great Elack-backcd Gull, and some Lapwings, 

 Godwits, Stints, Dunlins, Knots, and a Curlew, the greater 

 number alive and uninjured. These are turned out into 

 pens awaiting their disposal, and the dead ones put aside. 



They eat the Gulls here, the market-price being one 

 penny each ; and the orthodox manner of cooking them is 

 to make w^hat they call a " pot-pie." I believe they are 

 skinned and boiled as a preliminary, and was assured that 

 they were very good. However, I did not feel tempted 

 to try, so cannot say from experience whether they are to 

 be recommended as a dish for epicures. They are cheap 

 enough, at any rate. 



But wading- and sea-birds are not the only ones which 

 come ashore here. The Grey Crows, which haunt the shores 

 all the winter, as well as the fields more inland, come over 

 from the Scandinavian Peninsula, and also Woodcocks and 

 Sliort-eared Owls. The former of these are seldom caught, 

 presumably because they fly too high ; but the latter are 

 often taken in the nets. 



I saw myself one day the arrival of a Short-eared Owl. 

 hustled and mobbed by a lot of Rooks. It is often flushed 

 from turnip-fields by Partridge-shooters, and, coming about 

 the same time as the A\"oodcock, is known sometimes as 



