SUMMER HOURS ON BREYDON 139 



time there is much ado in the tree-tops, squabbles being not 

 infrequent ; and no wonder, when they begin to set up 

 establishments as close to each other as houses in a Yar- 

 mouth " Row." In August they all depart, and find fresh 

 pastures. Some, no doubt, take a trip to the Continent, a 

 procedure as fashionable with birds as with men. 



It was made pretty plain, too, where there were nests over- 

 head, by the big area of white-splashed plants below. A 

 score of angry and inebriated whitewashers could not have 

 flung their whitewash half so effectively ; it seemed to have 

 rained excreta ! And lying around in the less besmeared 

 places, and under the bracken, were many pellets, mostly 

 the size of ducks' eggs. I noticed these in hundreds when 

 brushing aside the herbage in order to discover any fish that 

 might have fallen, but in this search I was not fortunate; 

 though I picked up a three-inch tail-end of an eel, brown, 

 frayed, and evil smelling. It had evidently been thrown up 

 by an overfed or excited youngster. Two of the pellets I 

 took home with me, and pulled to pieces ; they smelt like 

 decayed mushrooms. They were hard to disintegrate, being 

 closely matted, and had much the appearance, when torn, of 

 black cotton-wool ; I found them composed almost entirely 

 of the fur of the water-vole, with a few broken, brittle teeth 

 and fragments of skulls, that crumbled somewhat easily 

 between the fingers. I warrant that the herons destroy 

 thousands of water-voles in the course of a season. In one 

 pellet I found cream-white maggot-like larvae, probably of 

 some beetle, and many minute insects, that on white paper, 

 by the aid of a powerful lens, could be distinguished as a 

 microscopic beetle much resembling a Staphylinid. 



Mr. Preston remarked that the herons did now and again 

 drop small eels, running up to half a pound, and sometimes 

 a few small fresh-water fishes; he had found half a small 

 jack, and a trout weighing at least a pound, but had never 

 discovered a flatfish, which is curious, seeing that in certain 

 seasons when eels are not plentiful, flounders have to satisfy 

 them when fishing on Breydon. I saw early in July 

 six young herons busy on Breydon, capturing little floun- 

 ders. 



For neighbours the herons have the kestrels and wood- 

 pigeons, and this season a pair of carrion crows. These, the 



