BYE) BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
The appearance of these birds on the wing when in 
considerable numbers, like the marvellous rising of the 
black-headed gulls in their breeding haunts, is a sight 
never to be forgotten. I have witnessed it myself on 
Breydon, when the whole surrounding country was 
covered with a deep snow, and when the broad channel 
of the main stream with its numerous tributaries, looked 
black in contrast to its whitened borders. Presently a 
bright gleam of sunshine would alternate with the snow 
storms of a real winter’s day, revealing a swarm of 
birds upon the “ flats” beyond, and when these, in hun- 
dreds, rose upon the wing, and performed, as one bird, 
their varied evolutions, the under and upper portions of 
their plumage in turn presented to the eye, seemed like 
a streak of silvery light, or a dark cloud passing over a 
sunny landscape.* 
Mr. J. E. Harting has so accurately described the 
habits of these birds when feeding on the Breydon 
“flats,” that [am glad to have the opportunity of quoting 
here certain passages from his MS. notes. In Sep- 
tember and October, 1863, he found small flocks of 
dunlins in the harbour, feeding in company with golden 
and ringed plovers in about equal numbers, with a few 
curlews and gulls. As soon as the tide began to flow 
purchased of the “fowler” and others; occasionally as many as 
three dozen and a half at one time. On one occasion we find the 
following birds thus curiously priced :—‘* It. a curlewe v4» 1jj teles 
[teal] and ijj stynts ij» and iij plovs vj4-”; and at another time the 
fowler received one penny for a dozen. “Itm pd to hym for a 
dosyn stynts, — — yj ob.” [two halfpence.] In the Northumber- 
land “ Accounts,” styntes are ordered “ to be hadde for my Lorde’s 
owne Mees and non other, so they be after yj a j4»” while snipe 
are entered at iij a j4 partridges at ij’. and woodcocks at j4 or 
ja: ob. [three halfpence. ] 
* See Thompson’s “Birds of Ireland,” vol. i, pp. 291-2; and 
“The Wild Fowler,” by Folkard, pp. 115 and 316. 
