BREYDON IN SPRINGTIME 89 



" They'll sune come up to the top in salt water ! " added 

 Goodens, which remark proved to be correct, for they rose to 

 the surface, suffocating and feebly struggling in an element 

 to which they were unaccustomed. The osprey promptly 

 dashed down, seized one of the largest of the fish with 

 its talons, and repaired to an adjacent stake to devour 

 it. This was "Johnny's" opportunity, and carefully squatting 

 in the well of the boat, and sculling with one hand, while he 

 kept the other on the trigger of his punt-gun, he soon suc- 

 ceeded in killing the bird. 



The only interesting feature of the incident was the in- 

 stinctive shrewdness of old Goodens. It shows the ready wit 

 of those whose training has been amid the wild life of the 

 local waterways. 



A hundred yards or so up this drain, on the right, are the 

 well-known " Lumps " ; they are the highest portions of the 

 flats, and were, no doubt, many years ago part of a big rond 

 or salting. To-day a " lump " here and there is grassed 

 over by coarse marsh herbage, made greener in places by 

 patches of sea scurvy-grass ; and in summer the bare levels 

 around them are carpeted by wide stretches of the so-called 

 samphire the jointed glass-wort {Salicornia herbaced). The 

 old folks used to pickle it and eat it ; latterly no one has 

 troubled himself about it, for the grocer saves much labour 

 and provides more appetising sauces. 



It is here that some of the gunners, especially those 

 amateurs who carry only shoulder-guns, gather in their 

 various vessels at the last of the flood tide ; whither, also, 

 when everywhere else is flooded, the poor, harassed wading 

 birds come to feed or rest, hoping, no doubt, that the waters 

 will not rise sufficiently high to wash them off. Imitating 

 their various call-notes, often very badly, the gunners some- 

 times decoy the restless flocks and decimate their numbers. 

 A flock of knots, lessening at each round, will keep answering 

 the fatal call, or dash in as if to tempt their fallen fellows to 

 rejoin them, only to be smitten and to float dead beside 

 them, until not a single one may be left to tell the tale of 

 slaughter. Young birds suffer most at such times. But 

 we are here with no evil designs; and in April they 

 are safe from molestation. The more that come hither 

 the merrier they may be. We have come to watch their 



