BREYDON IN LEISURELY AUTUMN 167 



couple of small dead eels, and an opened bloater which had 

 become tainted. I knew if the gulls did not find them the 

 crabs most certainly would. I was scribbling these notes, 

 when suddenly a beautiful adult common gull wheeled round, 

 pounced on one of the sections of an eel, and bolted it. He 

 next snatched hold of the bloater by the tail, when he was 

 " flown at " by a couple of black-headed gulls. They all saw 

 me simultaneously, for I was writing not half a dozen yards 

 away, with my face to the open doors. Down dropped the 

 bloater, and a few yards beyond dropped the gulls ; one of 

 the six black-heads for there were by this time gathered 

 half a dozen had a mouse-grey hood split on the crown 

 with a streak of white, and he had also a white chin. Two 

 other adult birds were as white-headed as in winter, with the 

 black ear-spots distinct and isolated. Another had a dark 

 line running from each ear-spot to the crown ; the others 

 were blotched. So soon does the summer hood vanish after 

 nesting-time in some. The common gull stood guard, so to 

 speak, over the tit-bits, and both a-wing and a-foot drove off 

 the others each time they were bold enough to presume. 

 I finally told them all to go with a flourish of my hand. 



The common gull still sits there a short way off, loth to 

 leave so dainty a morsel, and he may yet pluck up courage to 

 dash in and snatch it away. I am going to take another nap. 



AFTER EELS 



Than eel-picking I do not know a more laborious occupa- 

 tion. It is simple enough when you get into the knack of 

 it, but the continual jabbing and pulling soon become a 

 weariness to the muscles, even when one drops in amongst 

 a nice lot of eels. But more frequently than not one does 

 not strike an eel for every thirty stabs. 



I remember one fine August morning going up with Jary, 

 who, wherever on Breydon he may be, cannot be otherwise 

 than "watching." We went up beyond what is called the 

 "garden," a large area freely covered with Zostera, among 

 which, when the tide lifts, eels like to play nearly to the 

 Dickey Works. We went at high water, and waited until 

 the tide had fallen to less than a foot in depth. Then we 



