132 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



with certain other birds being " uneasy, " portending 

 bad weather. (The wind changed immediately after.) 

 Nov. 28. Blew hard to-day (and next), the gale 

 causing havoc all round the neighbourhood. Tide 

 rose to an alarming height. The sea broke through 

 the sandhills at Horsey. 



I may also quote a note as follows : 



Sept. 20, 1899. Wind veered yesterday from 

 south-west to south-east. Rough wet night. To- 

 day Breydon noisy with birds ; saw some Turnstones 

 and Whimbrel, numbers of Grey Plovers, some Green- 

 shanks, and many small birds. Many scores of Grey 

 Plovers were subsequently shot. 



During the spring migration an easterly, and a 

 north-easterly wind especially, favours bird-observa- 

 tion here. In the old days, of which the few worn- 

 out gunners still living delight to talk, when Godwits 

 were as common as Dunlins, "dirty" weather was 

 always hailed by them, bringing with it, as it did, 

 many birds a- wearied by flying "shoulder-on 11 on 

 their northward journey. 



Old Goodens, a man of iron constitution, who, 

 at an age exceeding the allotted span, still ventures 

 up Breydon eel -spearing, told me he once killed 

 fifteen Godwits at a shot. He had seen thousands 

 drop in on a thick drizzly morning, with a north-east 



