



310 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



" I know few prettier sights by the seaside in autumn 

 than watching a flock of terns slowly passing along 

 the coast, and fishing as they fly. Each bird in turn, 

 pausing for an instant, with its wings closed over its 

 back, drops like a shot into the splashing waves, and 

 rising again in an instant with its finny prey, pursues 

 its onward course. Occasionally a shoal of sand eels* 

 close in shore, or round the piles of some jetty or break- 

 water, attracts the birds' notice, and for hours the same 

 little game of ups and downs ' goes on continuously, 

 whilst, off the breeding-stations in the summer months, 

 some few are seen throughout the day, dipping out at 

 sea. Now poised an instant over the waves with beaks 

 pointing downwards; now with sure aim and upraised 

 wings darting upon their prey; or, with a fish pro- 

 truding from their bills, hastening back to some ex- 

 pectant partner on the shingly beach. 



" The note of these ' little mows,' as they are called 

 by our beachmen, to distinguish them from the 'big 

 mows,' or common terns, is very pleasing as they chase 

 one another in amorous flight, and not unlike the soft 

 babbling notes of the swallow, whose quick turns and 

 graceful sweeping flight are likewise so closely imitated 

 by la petite hirondelle de mer. 



" Mr. Lubbock states that he has found the nests 

 both of this and ( a larger species of tern formerly upon 

 an island in Hickling Broad,' and that ' they used also 

 at times to breed at Horsey.' At the present time, 

 however, I know of no nesting-place between Yarmouth 

 and . . . f but the latter beach is still, as it always 

 has been, the chief haunt of the lesser terns, although 



sketch of the position of the birds, and carrying away the eggs 

 and the shingle which did duty for a nest, with his assistance, the 

 late Mr. John Sayer reproduced the scene, in a charming group 

 still in the possession of the family, and on the case was painted 

 the couplet quoted above, which he wrote at the time. 



* Sir Thomas Browne, in his " Account of Fishes, &c., found 

 in Norfolk," mentions the abundance of sand eels " about Blakeney 

 and Burnham," and says they were " taken out of the sea sands 

 with forks," and are " a very dainty dish." 



f As this locality is still frequented by the lesser tern, although 

 in sadly reduced numbers, I hope I may be excused for with- 

 holding its precise situation. 



