BREYDON IN SPRINGTIME 101 



sunnier days in our midst, while more are looked for as mere 

 callers, on their way to their northern nesting quarters. 

 Some of the rarest of our British waders drop in to spend a 

 short vacation on the mudflats, and it is now that their 

 plumage is at its best. One May's arrivals will differ greatly 

 from another, a fact for which the direction and force of pre- 

 vailing winds are greatly responsible. Given a continuation 

 of strong westerly or south-westerly winds, and only the 

 merest stragglers from the migrating armies are to be met 

 with, while with a succession of winds from the east and 

 south-east, the trend of the migratory hordes will favour this 

 side of the German Ocean, and then it is that the naturalist 

 sees much that may interest him. 



A mere catalogue of the strange and interesting birds to 

 be seen on Breydon, even in these degenerate days, by any 

 one who could spare hours to loiter about in the drains and 

 by the mudflats, would be far from uninteresting ; and had 

 there been trustworthy recorders in the old days, besides 

 those who wrote their obituaries in blood, we might have 

 possessed some delightful literature. Unfortunately, in the 

 "good old days"(?) to go after birds meant less to watch 

 than to kill ; glad am I that to-day the tendency becomes 

 stronger to watch and admire, and the old spirit, too, of watch- 

 ing to outwit and slay, although still strong, grows less mani- 

 fest. It is to be hoped that future bird-histories will contain 

 fewer and fewer notes of " specimens shot [with date] ." 



It may seem strange that notwithstanding the lament so 

 often heard of birds becoming scarcer, that noble fellow the 

 spoonbill {Platalea leucorodia), taking one year with another, 

 has visited us more frequently of late years than formerly. It 

 is an exceptional year that does not see one " banjo-bill " 

 stalking about with easy gracefulness at the edge of some 

 flat, spooning up shrimps and small mollusca; while little sur- 

 prise is expressed at the sight of six or even a dozen of these 

 birds dropping in to spend a few days with us " specimen 

 hunting." Were the Broadlands made a sanctuary, I feel 

 confident this splendid bird would be induced to come and 

 nest again with us. Occasionally, early in April, oftener in 

 May, and sometimes until well into July, has the spoonbill 

 been recorded for Breydon. The late Fielding Harmer 1 



1 Birds shot on Breydon Water 



