4.26 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
summer amongst the reeds on the saltmarshes about 
Salthouse and Cley, but fresh water localities are almost 
invariably preferred in the nesting season, when, in the 
same neighbourhood, they regularly frequent the ponds 
at Hempstead, near Holt; and in one part, in close 
vicinity to a water-mill, in spite of the constant noise 
of the flushes.* 
Having observed these birds on “Bargate,” the chief 
expanse of water on Surlingham Broad, still in flocks of 
from twenty to thirty as late as the second week in April, 
I imagine the nesting of the species does not usually 
commence before May; and from the first to the last 
week in that month I have found their eggs in various 
stages of incubation. The nests, which vary some- 
what according to their situation, are all more or 
less compactly made, large in size, and composed of 
coarse materials so firmly interwoven that Mr. Hew- 
itson states he has found them capable of supporting 
his weight. The outside of this ingeniously formed 
basket, usually consists of dried flags, reed, and other 
withered plants; but I have occasionally known the 
young reeds and rushes used in part, when the contrast 
of the fresh green has had a very pretty effect. The 
interior is lined with rather finer substances, chiefly 
with portions of the dead leaves of the reed. Though 
not unfrequently placed in dry situations—on the sedgy 
bank of an island, or the rushy margin of a pond or 
lake—I have more commonly found them, on the broads, 
built over the water amongst the reed-stems, in shallow 
spots, resting on the weeds at the bottom, in others 
well raised above the surface, but so fastened to the 
reeds themselves as to rise with the tide, though with 
* Mr. J. H. Gurney has also observed this species on the river 
Mole, at Leatherhead, in Surrey, swimming about with young 
ones at no great distance from the water-wheel of a mill, 
