SOME BIRD NOTES 241 



snow they keep more to the sand-dunes on the coast ; in 

 rough but open weather they are found on the marshes, and 

 by the banks of the rivers and on Breydon. Our bird- 

 catchers have a notion that the whiter birds are the males, 

 and dispose of them as such. 



I noticed in the very winterly January of 1891, that a great 

 many of the common snipes shot had become exceptionally 

 light-coloured, greatly reminding me, at the time, of specimens 

 faded from being exposed to too strong a light. 



WILD GEESE 



The visits of wild geese to this neighbourhood are, with 

 the exception of those of the brent goose, very uncertain, 

 and I am inclined to think, having regard to local conditions, 

 that they must always have been so, at least for centuries. 

 In hard winters', with prolonged snowstorms, brent geese are 

 not uncommon off the coast ; but the other species are 

 irregular in their visits, and like the brent, these depend 

 greatly upon stress of weather. But the most curious thing 

 respecting them is that one particular species seems always 

 to predominate in numbers. During December several odd 

 birds are shot, in one instance three were killed on Breydon 

 by a punt-gunner named Fred Clarke : they were all bean 

 geese (Anser segetmri). One year pink-footed geese (A. 

 brachyrhyncus) will be ascendant ; another, white-fronted 

 geese (A albifrons). 



During the second week of March, 1904, six brent geese 

 put in an appearance on Breydon, and made themselves very 

 much at home ; it being close season they remained un- 

 disturbed. They found much to interest them among the 

 Zostera marina, and stayed with us until April i6th, on which 

 date I saw them marching about the flats. Whilst watching 

 them from the bank I observed some boys who were winkling, 

 and who, attracted by their apparent tameness, walked in 

 their direction as if to see how near they could approach 

 them. This the geese resented, and finding the place getting 

 too lively for them, they took to wing and, mounting high in 

 the air, turned and flew away in an easterly direction, and 

 did not afterwards return, This was quite an unusual periocj 



