BREYDON IN LEISURELY AUTUMN 163 



neath the Zostera, and comfortably await its return. Not 

 so well off are the "whitebait" [tiny herrings] and the 

 juvenile smelts, for after a short, helpless wriggle, unless there 

 happens to remain an inch-deep pool to hold them, they 

 must succumb. No wonder the smaller gulls are most in- 

 dustrious ramblers on the flats, and small wonder they are 

 always so merry ! 



Half a mile beyond this scattered flock were a number of 

 fine old greater saddle-backed gulls, evidently unencumbered 

 this year by domestic duties, for they had been here all 

 the summer ; with them were some younger blotched and 

 speckled birds. They were all busily turning over the wrack 

 in search of shore-crabs, and such chance fishes as they 

 might uncover. You can always tell when they are success- 

 ful in their search, for a quick grab is followed by an up- 

 lifting of the head, and a tangle of weeds depends ; in the 

 bight of them some crab or flounder is held fast by the 

 strong bill. A jerk or two and the crab is flung clear and as 

 quickly snatched up again, to be crushed and swallowed with 

 a self-satisfied shake of the head. I have examined the 

 excreta of these gulls ; they usually sleep on the "lumps" at 

 regular intervals, and leave them besmeared as with lime. 

 In these white patches are small fragments of half-digested 

 claws and carapaces. Here and there a big gull had, after 

 repletion, dropped down for a nap, waking for a moment 

 now and again to readjust some refractory feather, or to 

 stretch a wing. I had a strong suspicion that some sharp- 

 biting parasite had disturbed its nap. 



A shoveler-duck now flew past those saddle-backs, and 

 dropped into a drain. That bird was shot before the day 

 was out by a gunner higher up. At the same moment a 

 cormorant, a far from common visitor to-day, was pottering 

 about in DufTell's drain ; he was after a flounder or two 

 for breakfast. The gulls usually resent a cormorant's intru- 

 sion, but that day, for some reason best known to them- 

 selves, they did not. 



Seventy whimbrel, crying as they flew, passed by, and 

 after a few evolutions up and down kept on, and only odd 

 birds frequented the place all day. These came in from the 

 north-east ; mayhap they were high in the air, but these 

 wide-spreading flats so attract passing migrants that if they 



