BIRD NOTES 123 



edibles left the day before by the visitors. In the 

 autumn, too, they repair to the Denes in search of 

 various spiders and coleoptera that are peculiar to 

 such situations, patrolling the ground in regular 

 business-like fashion. When grey mullet were 

 plentiful in Breydon in spring, in the first half of 

 the last century, Cormorants were commonly seen on 

 the hunt for them. " Every post used to hold one," 

 said an old Breydoner to me on one occasion. 



A farmer at Caister, in December 1895, spread his 

 fields with herring refuse. The gulls Black -headed 

 Gulls in particular scented it out, and out of a ton 

 or two of it spread over the soil, devoured probably a 

 fourth of it before he had time to plough it in. 



In the summer, almost as soon as a ditch has been 

 " fyed-out," and the black mud has been thrown on 

 either side, the Green Sandpiper (Totanus ochropus) 

 puts in an appearance and begins a search for worms 

 and larvae upon it. I observed three of this locally 

 lessening species at Mautby on 19th August 1895. 



On 2nd February 1895 the land-birds had an ex- 

 ceedingly hard time. The Starlings were so tamed 

 by hunger that they grubbed among the snow under 

 the very eyes of the boys. Some bunches of them in 

 the town prowled around and among the feet of the 



