162 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



mind how as a boy I used, on drizzly nights during the 

 autumnal migration, to slip out into the backyard at home 

 and listen eagerly to the bewildered "sickle-bills" flying 

 above the glare of the town lights, charmed and thrilled, too, 

 by the key-whistled sort of note the dunlins blew ; and when 

 the knot and the godwit, and now and again an unknown 

 bird, joined in the chorus that made some of the townsfolk 

 shake their heads, and think of the spirits of the night. . . . 



Feeling considerably " run down," on the afternoon of 

 August 5th I provisioned my punt, and started from Breydon 

 Bridge to spend the Sunday and a night or two on my 

 favourite Breydon. I was unable to catch the flood tide, 

 and the wind was dead against me. I pass over the mishap 

 or two that befell me ; I had a terribly hard pull against that 

 raging ebb, that blistered even my horny hands, and it took 

 two hours to accomplish a trip that I can generally sail in 

 twenty minutes. I tumbled into the houseboat, and very 

 soon had a rasher of bacon frizzling over the cabin fire, to 

 the wonderment, perhaps, of a couple of black-backed gulls 

 to leeward, who found it difficult to associate such a savoury 

 aroma with their favourite carrion. The only unusual 

 "callers" were the lapwings, which this August, for some 

 reason or other, have haunted the adjoining marsh at night. 

 It cannot be worms it must be " leather jackets " they are 

 seeking, for they are not particular birds so long as plenty 

 offers ; and the larvae of the Tipula are dainties Master 

 Hornpie delights to eat. . . . 



Last night I slept well. The first visitor of the morning 

 was a pipit. How the pipits and wagtails of the year like 

 to hear the patter of their little feet on my white-topped 

 cabin roof! I can assure them they are always welcome. 



On opening the doors quietly and slowly, as I always do, 

 for one never knows what company one may have in front 

 of him I discovered scores of common gulls (Larus canus] 

 and black-headed gulls. These were running about the flats, 

 some but a stone's throw away. All were worming, and 

 snatching up shrimps and gobies, and no one knows what 

 else, for many young fishes are stranded when the tide falls ; 

 not that it matters much to the little " eel-pouts " [viviparous 

 blennies], flounders, gobies, shore-crabs, and various other 

 Crustacea, for some will wriggle into the ooze, or hide be- 



