372 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



harbour, by the 29th of July, in full summer plumage, 

 which by the beginning of September had mostly com- 

 pleted their winter dress. In 1851, by the 20th of July, 

 they had returned in flocks of from five to fifty, and 

 again in 1853, on the 1st of July,* he observed more 

 than one hundred together on the shingle bank, the old 

 birds being in full summer plumage. A large portion, 

 however, of our autumnal visitants shift their quarters 

 again later in the season, under certain conditions of 

 wind and temperature, and not unfrequently during 

 September and October scarcely more than one or two 

 small flocks will be seen, where so recently the mingling 

 footsteps of a feathered host might be traced on every 

 part of the muddy estuary. 



Yet, neither in spring nor autumn can their numbers 

 be compared to the thousands which pour in upon us 

 occasionally in severe winters. At such times I have 

 seen them on Breydon in countless numbers, crowding 

 the water's edge at the first turn of the tide, and 

 never quitting the mud-flats till the returning waters 

 fairly washed them off their feet, from the highest ground 

 in the harbour. With a knowledge of this habit, certain 

 portions of the "muds" have been artificially raised 

 at various times, and on these not only the dunlins and 

 other waders, but many kinds of fowl frozen out from 

 the broads and rivers, collect in order to feed on the small 



* Mr. Cordeaux in his " Notes on the Ornithology of Spurn 

 Point" on the Yorkshire coast, published in the " Zoologist " for 

 1868 (p. 1317), describes the dunlin as numerous on the 2nd of 

 July, flying in flocks along the beach, and estimated one flock at 

 about three hundred birds. Thompson, in his " Birds of Ireland," 

 states that he noted their arrival in Belfast Bay as early as the 

 30th of June, 1842, when about a dozen appeared. In 1838 and 

 1840 large flocks arrived by the 3rd and 5th of July, but in 

 some years they were not seen before the end of that month. 

 Flocks of from two thousand to five thousand have been seen in 

 mid-winter. 



