ii2 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



young heron fishing in a shallow drain, not a great way from 

 my houseboat. He had struck at and seized a flounder 

 much too large to swallow, no matter what efforts he might 

 make to do so. For nearly twenty minutes he shook and 

 nipped and kneaded it, alternating these exercises by most 

 convulsive efforts to engulf it in his capacious throat. Over 

 and over the bird brought it again to his bill-end, dropping 

 it in the shallow as it grew weaker. After being thus 

 occupied for some eight minutes, a black-headed gull or two 

 edged up to him, and watched his manoeuvres ; other gulls 

 drew up from mere curiosity, wondering what the others 

 were so interested in. In five minutes more than forty of 

 them were surrounding him, and still they came. Soon there 

 were a hundred, and still they came, running, craning their 

 necks, and some occasionally speeding their coming by short 

 flights. Those on the far side of the flat most certainly did 

 not know what they were running for, but they still converged 

 and drew up, until eventually quite two hundred gulls were 

 surrounding the industrious heron, who had been all this 

 time intent upon swallowing that unfortunate fish. Sud- 

 denly, as if aware of the commotion he was causing, and 

 despairing of his efforts, he dropped the coveted flounder 

 and took to wing in disgust. I could almost imagine him 

 feeling foolish and abashed at so many other birds witnessing 

 his discomfiture. 



The town rooks are still busy feeding along the tide- 

 margin, spending more of their time here than on the 

 marshes. Like the local starlings, they seem to acquire 

 quite a taste for carrion, both terrestrial and marine. In 

 May I have observed the old ones picking up the tiny 

 crustaceans the shorehopper, and probably Corophium, to 

 take home to their young ones in the treetops near the 

 market-place. Astonishing numbers must be collected, for 

 they may be observed snapping up these " trifles " with 

 almost the alacrity of dunlins, and from under their lower 

 mandible quite a walnut-sized bag of them is collected. 

 Half a dozen rooks with these pouches distended, look 

 exceedingly odd. In a week or so they will be bringing 

 their now well-fledged youngsters to share their hunting 

 with them, not at first insisting upon their catching for them- 

 selves, but disgorging into their capacious mouths their often 



