6



Mr. J. H. Gurney,



them travellers going north or east. From that date until August 16th

there were twenty-six days out of one hundred and six on which the

watcher was able to register the presence of Spoonbills. According

to his carefully kept notes, the longest period during which there was

not a Spoonbill on the Broad was from May 29th to June 11th. On

June 25th Mr. C. R. Gurney and I had a distinct view of three, and

on July 6th there were four, this being the largest number seen by

the watcher on any one day. In recording the visits of Spoonbills

Mr. Jaryhas always been requested to carefully observe the direction

of the wind. Accordingly, in looking back at his notes for many

years, we learn that forty-four Spoonbills have come to Breydon

Broad with a N.E. wind and seven with a N.W.; twenty more have

come with a W. wind, eight with a S.W., and six with a S. wind.

These observations were all made in April, May, or June, and a

good deal may be gathered from them. Evidently in the spring it is

a N.E. wind which generally brings Spoonbills ; but this is curious,

because in April and May their desire on leaving southern Europe

would be to migrate north, or perhaps north-west. Do they then

prefer to migrate with a wind which is against them ? There is,

however, another solution, namely, that it is a N.E. wind whereby

they are checked, and without which many would pass on without

halting on the Breydon mud-flats. This latter theory seems highly

probable, and it certainly appears that when the wind has been S., a

few only (fourteen in about as many years) have stopped on Breydon

Broad, the rest presumably wending their way to a breeding-place

in Holland.


Mr. F. C. Jourdain is of opinion that the largest Spoonbill

settlement in Europe is probably that at Obedszka-Bara, in the

Gegenwart (see Jakob Schenk, ‘ Aquila,’ 1908, p. 245), but it is

not likely that our Breydon birds nest there, or even pass it on

migration.


We were sorry to miss the pair of Montagu’s Harriers from

the marsh where they had been last year. However, this disappoint¬

ment was more than balanced when a little before half-past five a

fine Bittern was viewed approaching with lazy flight, extended legs,

and retracted neck from the same direction as one had come from

when Mr. Bonhote and I were on this Broad one warm July day two



