136 A NOVEMBER CHRONICLE. 



In connection with all this I ought, per- 

 haps, to say a word about our Ipswich 

 driver, especially as naturalists are some- 

 times reprehended for taking so much in- 

 terest in all other creatures, and so little in 

 their fellow-men. As we drew near the 

 beach, which is some five miles from the 

 town, we began to find the roads quite un- 

 der water, with the sea still rising. We 

 remarked the fact, the more as we were to 

 return on foot, whereupon the man said 

 that the tide was uncommonly high on ac- 

 count of the heavy rain of the day before ! 

 A little afterward, when we came in sight 

 of a flock of gulls, he gravely informed us 

 that they were " some kind of ducks " ! 

 He had lived by the seashore all his life, I 

 suppose, and of course felt entirely compe- 

 tent to instruct two innocent cockneys such 

 as he had in his wagon. 



Four days after this I made a trip to 

 Nahant. If Ammodramus princeps was at 

 Ipswich, why should it not be at other simi- 

 lar places ? True enough, I found the birds 

 feeding beside the road that runs along the 

 beach. I chased them about for an hour or 

 two in a cold high wind, and stared at them 



