376 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



during a second visit to Yarmouth, in October, 1867, 

 he found stragglers frequenting the sides of the drains, 

 and shot them like snipes as they rose out of the marsh 

 " dykes." Their food at that time of year " consisted of 

 small univalves belonging to the genera Rissoa and 

 Turbo, together with the remains of minute Coleoptera 

 and particles of grit and sand." 



A novel mode of taking these and other w^aders, as 

 well as many other birds that frequent our shores at 

 night, has been adopted at Lynn, by Mr. F. J. Cresswell 

 and others, of late years, with much success. On the 

 flat shores of the Wash, at the mouth of the estuary, 

 long nets, some six or seven feet deep, are stretched 

 upright on poles, somewhere about high water mark, and 

 the birds in their nocturnal flight strike the nets, and 

 becoming entangled m the meshes, are taken alive in 

 the morning. Some, however, are occasionally drowned 

 should the tide rise higher than is expected, or the nets 

 be placed beyond a certain level on the ooze. From 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., who, in December, 1862, 

 spent a night on board Mr. Cresswell's yacht, with the 

 view of visiting the nets in the early morning, I learn 

 that a dark night in mid-winter is reckoned the best 

 time for netting, and the north side of the Wash is 

 considered most favourable. The night should be very 

 dark and still, as the birds would avoid the nets if 

 visible at any distance, and, in stormy weather, the poles 

 are liable to be blown down, or even washed away. The 

 meshes are large so that various gulls and wild fowl 

 are caught by them, but the smaller Tringce, and even 

 larks, are taken in some quantities, being entangled 

 by their struggles. I have heard of as many as sixty 

 dunlins having been secured at one haul, and on one 

 occasion as many as one hundred and forty head, prin- 

 cipally sea gulls. Nocturnal migrants, as well as the 

 ordinary shore-birds of the neighbourhood, would seem 



