SOME BIRD NOTES 275 



(owner of the property to protect eggs on his own land. If 

 people are allowed to take terns' eggs, it follows they will not 

 stop there, but take other wild birds' eggs, such as red- 

 shanks, ringed dotterel, rock pipit, wheatears, etc. ; in fact, 

 every bird nesting on the shingle. P.S. I may mention the 

 breeding of the birds was very much affected by the cold 

 winds and sharp frosts in June ; it is possible the inclement 

 weather may also have affected the fish. A large number of 

 terns have now left the breeding ground and the neighbour- 

 hood.' The committee decided to embrace the letter in their 

 report to the council." 



I have no hesitation in suggesting that climatic and tidal 

 influences were more accountable for the scarcity of smelts 

 at their proper season ; with quite as much justice might the 

 fishermen complain that the terns were responsible for the 

 early failure of the sprat fishery, for sprats up till Novem- 

 ber 6th had not yet put in an appearance nor had I seen 

 a Suffolk sprat up till that date at Yarmouth an unpre- 

 cedented thing in my experience. 



On November 24th the following appeared in the Norwich 

 Mercury : 



"THE EAST COAST SPRAT FISHING 



" The sprat fishing on the East Coast is a failure, for reasons 

 that no one appears able to fathom. Aldeburgh, the head of 

 the industry, holds a yearly municipal feast, but it is doubt- 

 ful whether this commemorative banquet can be held. One 

 compensation is, however, found in the fact that the herrings 

 have come further south, and the Aldeburgh fishermen have 

 managed to recoup themselves. It is suggested that the 

 arrival of the herrings may be responsible for the disappear- 

 ance of the sprats." 



On this note I commented in the Eastern Daily Press 

 of November 29th, as follows : 



" I must confess to experiencing a feeling of deep satisfac- 

 tion when I read the other day in one of your contem- 

 poraries that 'the sprat fishing on the East Coast is a 

 failure for reasons that no one appears able to fathom/ etc. 

 Things looked a little better yesterday and Monday, when a 

 few tubs of sprats put in an appearance on the fish wharf; 

 but it is to be hoped that the more ignorant of the Alde- 

 burgh fishermen, who laid the fault of the failure of the 

 smelt fishery to the innocent little terns, have now made 

 up their minds that that failure was ' due to reasons that no 



