342 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



launch themselves upon the wing, and then, after a short 

 flight, evidently reluctant to abandon their haunts, they 

 settle upon the sea, just out of gun-shot, and head to 

 windward in extended lines, they rise and fall with the 

 heaving billows like a little fleet at anchor. In winter, 

 particularly in sharp weather, the old birds are plentiful 

 on Breydon, and may be seen on any part of our coast 

 line flying out at sea. I have also occasionally seen 

 them at Blakeney, Sheringham, and other places even 

 in the height of the breeding season. These, I imagine, 

 like others of their class before referred to, as well as 

 various Tringw, &c., are, in spite of their adult state, 

 unpaired stragglers, which from some cause have not 

 sought with the majority of their tribes their usual 

 breeding stations." 



There is at present, I believe, no breeding station of 

 this species on the east coast of England, and that at 

 the Bass Rock has long been deserted. Yarrell, in the 

 earlier editions, mentions the marshes on the shores of 

 Kent and Essex, at the mouth of the Thames, as breed- 

 ing-places, but it has certainly long ceased to nest there. 

 It seems impossible, therefore, that the adult or nearly 

 adult birds which are found on our coast during the 

 summer months, notwithstanding their enormous powers 

 of flight, can merely visit us from their nesting-places 

 on foraging excursions as some species of sea-birds 

 certainly do. I think, therefore, that Mr. Stevenson's 

 explanation of their presence is doubtless the correct 

 one.* 



* I am informed by Mr. T. F. Buxton that a curious entry 

 Occurs in a MS. Natural History Journal kept by himself, Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney, Mr. J. Gr. Barclay, and the late Mr. Charles Buxton, 

 in the neighbourhood of Cromer. The entry is in the writing of 

 Mr. Charles Buxton, under date of May, 1839, as follows : " I am 

 informed by James Pearson (a very intelligent man who was our 

 gamekeeper at Weybourne) that ... he never knew curlews 

 to breed there, but the black-headed gull has, and one pair of the 

 large black-backed gull." Mr. T. F. Buxton writes, " I can quite 

 confirm what my brother says about J. Pearson being an intelli- 

 gent informant. He was constantly on the Blakeney marshes, and 

 knew the birds extremely well, and gave us a good deal of infor- 

 mation as to the habits of the birds and their migrations." The 

 date of the occurrences referred to would probably be between 

 the years 1820 and 1835. 



