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 waders, 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 in 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 lable 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 Tringw, 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 
eed 
