

'■-,,^ V ^^■•^ ■y-'^^'^^y^'''^--^^^ 



The Black-He/Vdio) Gull 



CHAPTER VI 

 A Wood by the Sea 



One of my favourite haunts at Wells, in Norfolk, is 

 the pine wood, a mile or two long, growing on the slope 

 of the sand-hills and extending from the Wells embank- 

 ment to Holkham — a black strip with the yellow-grey 

 dunes and the sea on one side and the wide level green 

 marsh on the other. It is the roosting-place of all the 

 crows that winter on that part of the coast, and I time 

 my visits so as to be there in the evening. Rooks and 

 daws also resort to that spot, and altogether there is a 

 vast concourse of birds of the crow family. My habit 

 is to stroll on to the embankment at about three o'clock 

 to watch and listen to the geese on their way from their 

 feeding-grounds to the sea, always flying too high for 

 the poor gunners lying in wait for them. So poor, 



57 



