34 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



been an excise officer I could have made a name by sorting 

 over the regiment of those who, with every kind of gun 

 imaginable, but mostly without gun licences, skulked around 

 Breydon walls and marshes. 



On the 27th I went for a stroll to Gorleston Pier Head, 

 having heard a report that some wild ducks "of a sort 

 unknown" were to be seen inside the harbour; but I saw 

 none. A few score small gulls were to be seen floating 

 on the ebb tide near the North Sand just off the pier, 

 all the larger gulls having gone somewhere, and few 

 indeed were seen here while the severity of the weather 

 lasted. But I noticed a few thrushes (stray redwings and 



fZ 'if II H' 



DRIVEN SOUTH. REDWINGS MIGRATING 



their kindred), finches, and a pipit or two cross over the 

 pier, almost within arm's length, in that steady purposeful 

 manner peculiar to them during the normal period of immi- 

 gration. On the 28th I went for a walk round, crossing the 

 North Denes, sometimes wading through deep snowdrifts, 

 now tumbling into them, and again progressing much after 

 the fashion of a short-legged spaniel getting through deep 

 grass, for the undulations and sudden breaks of the sand- 

 dunes were hardly traceable ; and I finally reached the shore. 

 Fortunately I felt in fairly good form. A few out-flying 

 Turdidce and finches passed over me as I floundered through 

 the snow ; but when I reached the beach, I found thrushes, 

 fieldfares, redwings (in particular), larks, linnets, pipits, 

 twites, and, indeed, incessores of all kinds, even including 



