14 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



youngster fearful to travel; or perhaps, an old 

 bird anxiously awaiting the fledging of a belated 

 brood. Such birds look sadly out of place flitting 

 to and fro before the yellowing reed-clumps in the 

 pelting rain, or snatching at the flies dejectedly 

 hanging around our windows, or dully resting under 

 the eaves on the sunnier side of the house. Well 

 into November, one year I watched, from day to 

 day, a pair of birds feeding their progeny, which 

 they had at length to leave to their fate. This 

 fact may help to account for the young dead birds 

 found now and again in the nests on the marsh- 

 mills, or lying shrivelled on the floor, the poor 

 weak things having fluttered out of the nest in 

 their endeavours to follow their anxious parents. I 

 think it was in 1895 that on Boxing Day a Swallow 

 was shot on the Denes. 



HUNGRY CROWS 



During a severe spell of frost in February 1879, 

 Breydon became almost completely frozen over, 

 broken only here and there by a narrow "wake" 

 in a strongly tided "run. 11 The marshlands were 

 covered with snow, and the Hooded Crows became 



