1902 Norfolk Broads in Autumn 275 



would be bagged in the neighbourhood if the close season 

 ended a fortnight earlier, whilst on the other hand it would 

 be for the benefit of the species if it commenced at least a 

 fortnight sooner. I have, in two different years, seen young 

 Wild Ducks swimming on March 28 and April i, and this 

 was long before semi-domesticated birds were anything like 

 so common as at present, the turning down or escape of 

 some of which has probably hastened the breeding period, 

 and is accountable for the January eggs which we some- 

 times see chronicled in the papers ; but however hard the 

 weather may be, the local Wild Duck are generally paired 

 by the first week in February. 



In support of the contention that August the ist is fully 

 late to commence flapper-shooting let me quote a conver- 

 sation I had some years ago with a man who had been 

 making the feathers fly a week or two before the legitimate 

 time. I approached his boat and asked him whether he 

 was aware that he was breaking the law. On my telling 

 him how, he replied, " Oh, that new law you mean ; we don't 

 take no account of that, — that was made for them West 

 Country folk. If we don't get 'em \ix., the Ducks] directly 

 they fly, we don't get 'em at all." 



The first birds to move off after breeding are the Mistle- 

 thrushes ; they get together in little parties, and frequent 

 the open fields and marshes for some weeks preparatory to 

 their journey southwards. A more ubiquitous token of 

 departing summer is the silence of the Cuckoos, especially 

 abundant in the Broad district every year, and this year 

 exceptionally late in ceasing to "sing." The young birds 

 spend their last days with us on the seaside marshes, feed- 

 ing meanwhile partly on the orange - and - black - banded 

 larvae of the Cinnabar Moth so plentiful on the golden 

 bloomed Ragwort, one of the few weeds which the most 

 prevalent Rabbits will not condescend to devour. 



As autumn progresses, our special rarity, the Bearded 

 Tit, is apparently seized with a mild form of the migration 

 fever, for little parties — separate families, I believe — of this 

 delicate bird may now be met with roving some distance 

 from their actual breeding quarters. The multitude of 

 troublesome Blackbirds and Thrushes having gleaned the 



