SOME BIRD NOTES 267 



grass you describe I do not remember. Pochards are dis- 

 tinctly fresh-water feeders . . . and a grass called 'poker- 

 grass' abounds on Heigham Sounds and Hickling Broad. 

 Some thirty years ago the Rev. Micklethwaite, of Hickling, 

 sent me a hamper of it, which I planted in my decoy-pond 

 at North Cove, but whether it is there now I know not, but 

 no pochards ever sought it. ... 



" In 1853, the late Fielding Harmer and myself were on 

 a shooting expedition in Heigham, Hickling, and Horsea 

 [Horsey], and we then discovered that large flocks of 

 pochards spent their day in safety on Ranworth Broad (then 

 a decoy in active operation) ; at dusk they came in a sweep- 

 ing mass straight on to Heigham Sounds. We could easily 

 have intercepted them and got two or three as they passed 

 over, but our object was to shoot a pound of shot into the 

 mass the moment they alighted. In this we were unsuc- 

 cessful, although we stuck to them for a week ; so we deter- 

 mined the next year to visit the Sounds in November, and 

 give every night to them until we accomplished our object. 

 But we were baffled ; we found the exact spot where many 

 of them alighted, but on touching the water they went down 

 like stones after their favourite grass, and came to the sur- 

 face in detail, and straggled out, rendering a big shot im- 

 possible. We then discovered, by careful watching, that 

 they collected in the morning, sometimes as early as 3 a.m., 

 and took their departure. So we spent night after night in 

 trying to accomplish our object, only to discover that at a 

 given signal they arose from straggling positions, took a 

 sweep round until they got together, and then made off. 



" Baffled in this, we sailed down to Breydon, to find out 

 what we could of the habits of the fowl thereon during the 

 night, and lay moored in the old Hornet for some three 

 weeks at Lamb's rond. This sounds funny now, but at that 

 time you could sail right across Breydon at half-tide above 

 the Cross Stake, and getting over a ridge near the channel, 

 found deeper water ; and you could mostly reach the channel 

 by Bessey's drain (which was stopped by the old hulk 

 [Agnes]\ but always by Dufifell's drain, which at that time 

 was, at extreme low water, only two or three hundred yards 

 long, when it opened into deep water. 1 



" During our visit we learned much of the habits of widgeon 

 and mallard, also something of the waders and herons, but 

 never a pochard ever came in to feed, although straggling 

 parcels dropped in from time to time for prospecting, there- 

 fore I fancy you will find that ' poker-grass ' never existed 



1 It now reaches from Dan Banham's mill to Stake 14, nearly a mile ; and 

 is deep and wide even at low water. 



