112 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



their number in the fall of the year. Two enormous 

 flocks of this species passed over Yarmouth on 

 22nd and 23rd December 1893. There were 

 thousands. I considered at the time that they were 

 fleeing from severe weather in their native haunts, 

 and made a note of it, suggesting that it would most 

 likely follow in their wake. As a matter of fact, in 

 a very short time heavy winds and snowstorms 

 visited us. The birds settled in the vicinity, and 

 the Saturday's market was glutted with them. 

 Thousands again arrived on 12th December 1898, 

 and passing straight on over the town, made in- 

 land. I visited the Saturday's market, expecting to 

 find our rural sportsmen had been busy ; but none 

 were on sale, so that they must have gone, being 

 probably unwearied, a considerable distance inland. 



UNEXPECTED PLEASURE 



The ornithologist has his delights, and one of 

 them is to break in, as it were, upon a scene that 

 delights his eyes, such as, for instance, when I 

 myself, paddling upstream on 15th May 1893, on 

 the top of the flood-tide, saw upon the " lumps " 

 still uncovered by water a congregation of no 



