Thorpe Mere ^^ 



and the nestlings squatted flat on the grass within a foot or two of 

 my butt. I waited for a few moments to see what would happen. 

 The parents disappeared in the rushes of the mere, and fluttered 

 out on the edge, evidently with the hope of luring me after them. 

 All the while they kept crying lustilv, and the nestlings near me 

 remained squatted and motionless. 



I then stepped out, and picked up one of the nestlings in mj' 

 hand — a little, soft ball of down, with thick but very weak knock- 

 kneed legs, apparently hardly able to carry the weight of its body, 

 much less to take the long excursion I had been watching. I 

 estimated its age to be four or five days. 



This action on my part brought both the parents out of the 

 rushes, flying close round my head and uttering the most piteous 

 appeals. I put the nestling down again on the spot from which I 

 had taken him up, picked up my glasses, walked up to the top of 

 the hill and lay down. It was quite half-an-hour before the parents 

 would venture back to the young ; but at last I saw them, after 

 taking a preliminary flight round to see that the coast was clear, 

 drop down again by their chickens, and gradually lead them along 

 again, until they finall}- reached their goal and disappeared into the 

 rushes. 



II 



I now turn to the second part of my paper. Let us suppose 

 that we are quartered at Aldeburgh, a little town on the east coast 

 of Suffolk, and have made some enquiries of the local fishermen- 

 gunners about Waders and other birds, and where they are to be 

 found. On the south side runs the river Aide, an excellent river for 

 Waders when the tide is out, and the huge mud flats are exposed. 

 But the very size of the flats makes it difficult to explore, except 

 with a gunning punt, and a useful view of the mass of the birds 

 feeding can only be got just at the time when the rising tide is 

 lifting them off their last legs — hardly the place for the first study 

 of wading life. 



Immediately to the north of the town, and reaching to the 

 \illage of Thorpe, lies another stretch of ground of a more hopeful 

 nature. This is divided roughly into three parts, a marshy part, 

 a marsh-aiid-miid part — the water in both being fresh, and each being 

 separated from the other, as well as from the remaining third, or 

 salt-ccater part, b}' a sea-w'all made of turf and mud. The water in 

 the salt-water part ebbs and flows with the tide through a little 

 " haven," covering the flats or leaving them bare. When the haven 

 closes, as is usually the case, the flats become covered with a few- 

 inches of water, ever getting less and less salt as the proportion of 

 land-water flowing in increases. Map A. 



The whole is generally and collectively known as Thorpe 



