WINTER DAYS ON BREYDON 45 



plump and in good condition. These birds appear loth to 

 leave the Zostera, and to go back to the Broads ; this is the 

 way with them when they have once tasted this succulent 

 vegetable. The day before Young had shot a shag, a most 

 unexpected visitor to Breydon at any time. 



" The gulls have now betaken themselves to their usual 

 haunts, although odd birds seem unduly familiar, and still 

 persist in visiting parts of the town where under ordinary 

 circumstances they would not think of going. 



"As usual the greatest sufferers during this heavy snow were 

 the redwings, a fact remarked on by observers who, like myself, 

 came to the conclusion that extreme cold, as much as short- 



ON EVIL DAYS. COOTS ON BREYDON 



ness of food, seriously affects this species ; and it was notice- 

 able, too, how in a remarkably short time they drooped 

 and died, while in more protracted frosts, without so much 

 snow, in other years they did not so soon succumb. Numbers 

 were found dead in the surrounding villages, as were some 

 chaffinches ; but larks, as they usually do, took to the cottage 

 gardens, and fed freely on the cabbages, to the great undoing 

 of the gardens, and in many instances to their own." 



"Feb. *jth, 1907. Owing to the Broads being still frozen 

 and the great liking the coots have acquired for the Zostera^ 

 a crowd of them still remain on Breydon, and are shot at 

 when breaks in the ice or other 'favourable' circumstances 

 admit of approaching them. Poor things ! There are a 

 number of them trailing one broken leg and hopping on 

 the other, as the result of being wounded by stray pellets." 



