32 A BIRD COLLECTOR'S MEDLEY. 



blue. We could not discover that the Shoveller was breeding, though I believe 

 it has done so since, nor could we find any traces of the Bearded Tit. 



Ten years later, chance bringing me within reach of Yarmouth, I decided 

 to pay a visit to the more Eastern Broads. Breydon was to be the centre of 

 attraction, and we reached Yarmouth on September roth. Ill fortune dogged 

 us from the start. While putting our guns together after breakfast, something 

 went wrong with one of F 's triggers, and it was arranged that he should 

 proceed to the nearest gunsmith's, while we chartered a boat for the day. The 

 boathouses were said to be close at hand, and we started forth under the 

 guidance of the " boots." Some boathouses were close by, but they had no 

 available boats, and we wandered on for a considerable distance through 

 crooked lanes and alleys before we at last secured a suitable craft. We then 

 sent the " boots " back to the hotel to bring up the missing gun, but the latter, 

 who had returned earlier than was expected, and had grown tired of waiting, 

 had started forth to track us on his own account, and by the time he was 

 retrieved from the above-mentioned network of alleys, we were informed that 

 we had missed the proper tide. Forth we went nevertheless, and, mingling at 

 first in the stream of wherries, pleasure steamers and barges, got through the 

 stone bridge with some difficulty, and found ourselves at length on the " Queen 

 of the Broads." 



What sort of sport Breydon may be able to afford on occasions, I am 

 unable to say. Doubtless its geographical position, and its vast muds, almost 

 too vast in places, attract rarities at times ; and when there is a migration on, 

 there may even be good shooting if the tide is right. For us the tide was 

 wrong, there was no migration on, and no rarities were present, and the 

 shooting was positively nil ; three guns between them never fired a shot. A 

 quarter of a mile from the bridge we might, had we chosen, have raked a small 

 flock of Dunlin, and by the look on our boatman's face when we didn't fire, we 

 guessed that he had no expectation of meeting many birds beyond. These 

 Dunlin had already run the gauntlet of another boatful, and left one of their 

 number winged upon the muds, and the whole party were now standing up 

 having shots at it, one after the other, without any apparent effect. After the 

 fusillade had lasted several minutes, and as the bird seemed none the worse, 

 the boatman was at length instructed to take off his boots, and run it down on 

 the muds. This he did, though with no effusive readiness, while we lay by and 

 watched the whole performance ; it was the most exciting episode of the day. 

 We then stuck all but permanently on the mud, and, when we did get off, it 

 was decided that we should land and walk along the sea-wall, while the man 

 worked his way through a shallow channel and met us higher up. Near the 



