Thorpe Mere 15 



you had not noticed in the dim hglit, now rise and make off 

 protesting ; you hear the rush and rattle of hundreds of wings ; 

 you can distinguish the cry of (lodwit, Dunhn, Ringed Plover, 

 Stints and Grey Plo\'er. 



It is hopeless trying to do anything more until the commotion 

 caused by the Redshank has died down, so we will stop the punt 

 under that high mud-])ank and wait for the full da3light to come. 



After a short wait the daylight has grown so much that you 

 think it worth while picking up your glasses again to spy the big 

 fiat. Even with the naked eye, you can see some grey bunches, 

 which at first you take to be lumps of mud, but which, since they 

 mo\-e. must reallv be birds of some kind, 



There is one flock of about fort}- birds, Godwits, and newly 

 arrived, for " there were none here yesterday evening," says your 

 pilot with certainty. 



Some are washing themseh-es at the edge of one of the side 

 drains ; some still half asleep ; but the bulk busily engaged in 

 probing the mud with their long, sensitive, tip-tilted beaks. With 

 a little more light, you can see their colours more clearly, and you 

 will notice that, out of these forty birds, some ten are in nearly 

 perfect breeding-dress of rich, bright chestnut with brown speckled 

 backs ; others, again, are half-way between winter and breeding 

 plumages ; and more than half of them are in complete winter 

 dress. 



If you had these birds in }our hands to examine, you would 

 find males in all these three stages, and those in winter-dress would, 

 perhaps, not show a single red feather, even at this late date. To 

 me, it is an interesting point whether these grey birds are birds of 

 the year,* which are not going to breed ? For one assumes they do 

 not breed without putting on their nuptial dress, and although it 

 is the twelfth of May, these show no sign of any change. Nor does 

 it seem possible for them to effect a change in time to be on the 

 Arctic breeding grounds in June. In the old days, before the advent 

 of a close-time, it was a common experience for gunners who shot 

 the Godwits to find quite one-half of their birds in perfect winter- 

 plumage at this date, or even later. The females, as we see them 

 in this country in the spring, seldom show much change from their 

 winter dress. 



A little higher up on the flat are a pair of oddly coloured birds, 

 which the improving light enables you to see perfectly. They are 

 busily turning over some green shiny weed, and picking up the 

 sandiioppers and small crustaceans which lie underneath it. 



They are brilliantly, almost vulgarly, coloured birds, thick set, 

 with short wedge-like bills, a tortoise-shell back, orange-coloured 

 legs, and a black pectoral band. Turnstones, most certainly ; 

 and the next instant you get confirmation if you need it, for some- 



* i.e., Birds which have not completed their first year, having been hatched in the previous 

 season. — Editor. 



