372 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
harbour, by the 29th of July, in full summer plumage, 
which by the beginning of September had mostly com- 
pleted their winter dress. In 1851, by the 20th of July, 
they had returned in flocks of from five to fifty, and 
again in 1853, on the Ist of July,* he observed more 
than one hundred together on the shingle bank, the old 
birds being in full summer plumage. A large portion, 
however, of our autumnal visitants shift their quarters 
again later in the season, under certain conditions of 
wind’ and temperature, and not unfrequently during 
September and October scarcely more than one or two 
small flocks will be seen, where so recently the mingling 
footsteps of a feathered host might be traced on every 
part of the muddy estuary. 
Yet, neither in spring nor autumn can their numbers 
be compared to the thousands which pour in upon us 
occasionally in severe winters. At such times I have 
seen them on Breydon in countless numbers, crowding 
the water’s edge at the first turn of the tide, and 
never quitting the mud-flats till the returning waters 
fairly washed them off their feet, from the highest ground 
in the harbour. With a knowledge of this habit, certain 
portions of the “muds” have been artificially raised 
at various times, and on these not only the dunlins and 
other waders, but many kinds of fowl frozen out from 
the broads and rivers, collect in order to feed on the small 
* Mr. Cordeaux in his “ Notes on the Ornithology of Spurn 
Point” on the Yorkshire coast, published in the ‘“ Zoologist” for 
1868 (p. 1817), describes the dunlin as numerous on the 2nd of 
July, flying in flocks along the beach, and estimated one flock at 
about three hundred birds. Thompson, in his “ Birds of Ireland,” 
states that he noted their arrival in Belfast Bay as early as the 
30th of June, 1842, when about a dozen appeared. In 1838 and 
1840 large flocks arrived by the 3rd and 5th of July, but in 
some years they were not seen before the end of that month. 
Flocks of from two thousand to five thousand have been seen in 
mid-winter. 
