874 BIRDS OP NORFOLK:. 



The appearance of these birds on the wing when in 

 considerable numbers, like the marvellous rising of the 

 black-headed gulls in their breeding haunts, is a sight 

 never to be forgotten. I have witnessed it myself on 

 Breydon, when the whole surrounding country was 

 covered with a deep snow, and when the broad channel 

 of the main stream with its numerous tributaries, looked 

 black in contrast to its whitened borders. Presently a 

 bright gleam of sunshine would alternate with the snow 

 storms of a real winter's day, revealing a swarm of 

 birds upon the " flats " beyond, and when these, in hun- 

 dreds, rose upon the wing, and performed, as one bird, 

 their varied evolutions, the under and upper portions of 

 their plumage in turn presented to the eye, seemed like 

 a streak of silvery light, or a dark cloud passing over a 

 sunny landscape.* 



Mr. J. E. Harting has so accurately described the 

 habits of these birds when feeding on the Breydon 

 "flats," that I am glad to have the opportunity of quoting 

 here certain passages from his MS. notes. In Sep- 

 tember and October,* 1863, he found small flocks of 

 dunlins in the harbour, feeding in company with golden 

 and ringed plovers in about equal numbers, with a few 

 curlews and gulls. As soon as the tide began to flow 



purchased of the " fowler " and others ; occasionally as many as 

 three dozen and a half at one time. On one occasion we find the 

 following birds thus curiously priced : " It. a curlewe v d -> ijj teles 

 [teal] and ijj stynts iij d - and iij plovs vj d - "; and at another time the 

 fowler received one penny for a dozen. " Itm pd to hym for a 

 dosyn stynts, ij ob." [two halfpence.] In the Northumber- 

 land "Accounts," styntes are ordered " to be hadde for my Lorde's 

 owne Mees and non other, so they be after vj a j d ->" while snipe 

 are entered at iij a j d -> partridges at ij d - and woodcocks at j d - or 

 j d - ob. [three halfpence.] 



* See Thompson's " Birds of Ireland," vol. ii., pp. 291-2 ; and 

 " The Wild Fowler," by Folkard, pp. 115 and 316. 



