XII 

 BIRD-WATCHING IN A BREYDON PUNT 



"The birds around me hopped and played; 

 Their thoughts I cannot measure : 

 But the least motion which they made, 

 It seemed a thrill of pleasure." 



WORDSWORTH. 



fT^HE dew sparkles on every leaf- It is but the matter of a few minutes 

 bud and grass-blade, and the getting our punt afloat, one foot as 

 skylark sings merrily abovehead on a we push her scrunching a handful of 

 bright May morning. The sun has broken carapaces and legs of hapless 

 climbed his rosy way just high enough shorecrabs that, last night, a couple of 

 to tinge with ruddier hues the pan- brown rats discussed at supper time : 

 tiles of the quaint old houses on the they hunt on the mud at low water, 

 opposite quay-side, and to fling a glare sometimes even by daylight, their foot- 

 of burning light on the freckled sur- prints and tail-streaks dotting thickly 

 face of the tide gliding by our boat- here and there. Our gun-punt is a 

 house doors. A few big sea slaters typical Norfolk boat, eighteen feet long, 

 (Ligia oceanica) are sunning them- pointed at both ends, like a collier's pick- 

 selves on the woodwork, and a number axe, broad amidships, and where the 

 of banded Nemoralis snails are loitering haft fits in is where the punter sits to row 

 still to nibble at the succulent grasses in the " well " of the craft. She is 

 topping the " wall " ; while a parcel flat-bottomed, drawing only three or 

 of black-headed gulls, rejoicing in four inches of water ; she was built for 

 their nuptial hood and the glorious a watcher of birds, and not a butcher, 

 morning, are taking a few hours' respite We can glide over the " flats " in shal- 

 from the cares of nesting, and seeking lows that a keeled boat dare not nego- 

 a change diet from inland grub and tiate. Decked fore and aft, with a low 

 earthworm : they dip at every edible rail round the " well," we care little 

 morsel that floats on the tide floating for the wintry waves into which she 

 fish or struggling insect, and daintily dips her nose, for the broken water 

 drop toe-deep into the water as they runs off at once from the s'^htly 

 snatch at some high-swimming Idotea rounded deck. To-day there is but 

 linearis, or " sea-louse." How care- the merest ripple ; we won't ship the 

 lessly and merrily they scream ! mast, for speed is unnecessary, and the 



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