340 



BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



wandering life for twelve months longer, and most prob- 

 ably when thus seen in transit to and fro, are making 

 during the day for Yarmouth -roads, where the refuse 

 from the fishing and other vessels supplies a large por- 

 tion of their fbod,"^ and at night return to roost on some 

 favourite sand-bar, on the flat shores of the Wash ; or, 

 it may be, even further still, on the Lincolnshire or 

 Yorkshire coasts."t The two great feeding-places of 

 the LaridcB on the Norfolk coast are the flats left bare by 

 the retiring tide at Breydon, in the extreme east, and 

 the shoals of the Wash in the extreme west. On Brey- 

 don " muds," and outside Yarmouth harbour, a constant 

 and abundant supply of food is to be found ; but from 

 that point, north-west to Cromer, and thence west to 

 Wells, no special attraction is to be found for these 

 birds. Once the low shores at Wells are reached the 

 succession of flats, mussel scaups, and sands left uncovered 

 at every fall of the tide quite round the north-west corner 

 of the county at Burnham, Brancaster, and Holme, to 

 Hunstanton, Snettisham, and Wolferton, can hardly be 

 surpassed as a feeding-ground for gulls and waders, and 

 all along this line of coast they abound exceedingly. I 

 know no prettier sight than to watch their arrival as the 

 tide recedes. Each slight elevation as it shows above 

 the retiring waters is taken possession of by a party of 

 watchful gulls, and soon the low flat shore is dotted 

 with flocks of these interesting birds busily searching 

 amongst the tangle and shallow pools for the abundance 

 of marine organisms to be found in such situations. 

 Not only are these broad tracts the resort of gulls, but 

 long strings of oyster- catchers may be seen winging 

 their way in the same direction, terns are fishing over 

 the shallows, god wits, redshanks, dunlins, and ring- 



* Sir T. Browne, iu his " Account of the Birds found in 

 Norfolk," without attempting to discriminate the species, which 

 indeed were little known in his day, says, " Many sorts of Lari, 

 seamewes & cobs. The Larus maior in great abundance in 

 herring-time, about Yarmouth." 



t See also on this subject a paper by Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 

 " On the periodical movements of gulls on the coast of Norfolk," 

 " Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc," iv., p. 326-333. Mr. 

 Gurney demurs to Mr. Stevenson's statement as to the direction 

 taken by the gulls. 



