8o AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



exhaustion, however, makes many birds stupidly 

 tame or indifferent when their natural wariness 

 becomes conspicuous by its absence. 



In October 1890 a flock of Starlings alighted, tired 

 and weary, in the rigging of a lightship, when one of 

 the hands deftly brought down one by a shot from a 

 pea-rifle. The birds closed up, as the ranks of a 

 regiment might do at the falling of a comrade. 

 Thus, one after the other, thirteen were rendered 

 hors de combat, the survivors having meanwhile 

 continuously closed up as one and another dropped 

 out. Suddenly, however, those remaining became 

 alarmed, and flew away. 



The Ringed Plovers which from time immemorial 

 have placed their nests on the north beach, have 

 not profited by the very untoward circumstances of 

 latter years; and to this day the remnant of the 

 native race attempts to settle here in the spring. 



As recently as the spring of 1902 two pairs of 

 Lesser Terns (Sterna minuta) took a great fancy to the 

 Breydon mud flats, and from what I observed of 

 their actions, they were intent upon taking up 

 nesting quarters on one of the highest flats, near the 

 " Ship Drain," which is covered to-day only by the 

 higher spring tides. They remained there well into 



