94 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
employed by the beachmen to find their nests,* which 
they do by scent, standing at each until the man 
comes up to examine it. But here, probably, owing to 
the close system of egging, which has prevailed for so 
many years, I have never found the full complement of 
four eggs, and the beachmen inform me that they rarely 
find more than three. Some few fragments of shell or 
shingle may be seen in their nest-holes as in those on 
the warrens, but on the beach this singular custom would 
probably pass unnoticed, since the small surrounding 
pebbles may be so easily swept in by accident. The 
young, which run almost from their birth, are quite as 
difficult to find as the eggs, squatting close on the least 
sien of danger amongst the larger pebbles, to which the 
colours of their nestling plumage so closely assimilate. 
Specimens of these little creatures, sent me from Salt- 
house in their downy state, have the back of the head, 
neck all round, and the under parts generally, pure 
white; the forehead and crown (the latter bordered by 
a conspicuous narrow black band, across the occiput) the 
back and wing coverts, mottled with shades of light and 
dark grey, tinged in places with yellowish brown. By 
the beginning of August, however, both old and young, 
scarcely a bird remaining, leave the Salthouse shingles, 
and seek the more prolific feeding grounds at the mouths 
of such tidal channels as Blakeney and Cley; or in little 
family groups may be found roving along the coast, and 
feeding amongst the weed-covered rocks, left bare at low 
water as at Sherringham and Cromer. 
Many of my readers are probably aware that the 
* According to Yarrell (2nd ed., vol. ii., p. 471), when visiting 
Hastings, in 1833, he found the same system of using dogs for 
egg gathering was commonly adopted on the shores of Kent and 
Sussex. 
