BIRD NOTES 165 



rarely with us that its presence is not suspected, and 

 few give more than a passing glance at a flock of 

 gulls dozing on a flat or floating in a drain. 



The Avocet bred constantly and in some numbers 

 at Horsey early in the nineteenth century. Lubbock x 

 speaks of an old and respectable fenman assuring 

 him " that forty years ago " (Lubbock wrote in 1845) 

 " it bred regularly near the Seven-Mile House on the 

 river Bure." 



THE WAYS OF WADERS 



Just as every wader has its distinctive note, so 

 has it its own peculiar methods of flight, run, 

 and feeding. The pert Ringed Plover, when feeding, 

 never forgets to have one or more chums watching : 

 it seldom covers more than two feet of mud, usually 

 running three or four steps and then stopping, 

 unless a pedestrian is hard upon its track, when it 

 endeavours to outdistance him before attempting 

 again to pick up its crustacean prey. The Dunlin 

 is less deliberate, and erratically runs a greater or 

 lesser distance before looking for a likely worm-hole. 

 The Curlew-Sandpiper is more energetic than either 

 of them, for it probes the mud at almost every step, 



1 Observations on the Fauna of Norfolk. 



