CHAPTER XVII. 



THE CRUMBLES. 



THE study of ornithology may indeed be said to have been brought 

 up-to-date when you can be transported to the scene of your researches in 

 a motor 'bus ! Yet to this climax of perfection has Eastbourne attained. 

 Its motor 'bus will land you within five minutes' walk from the Crumbles 

 that is to say, within five minutes of one of the best hunting-grounds in 

 the whole of the British Isles. I mean, of course, for rarities. Quality, not 

 quantity, must be the motto of the shooter over the Crumbles. He must have 

 realized that vast and crowded mudflats do not of necessity mean rare birds. 

 He must be wedded to the cult of the odd corner, must be prepared to bring 

 home his gun unused, and prepared also to level it at a moment's notice at 

 almost any bird on the British list. I may add that the shooting over the 

 Crumbles is not free, but is confined to a small party of about a dozen guns. 

 To describe the place is almost to idealize the requirements of the collector. 



You have, inside an hour's walk, a marsh with mud and reeds, shingle 

 with brackish pools, and, surrounding the latter, bushes such as might shelter 

 almost any Warbler under the sun. All this is found on a low-lying piece 

 of ground, and above it a vast waste of shingle extends right away to 

 Pevensey village, in the middle of the bay. It is not to be wondered at 

 that with such variety of surface there is variety also to be met with 

 amongst its birds. 



Most of my earlier expeditions to the Crumbles were made in company 

 with Mr. A. H. Streeten, then a boy at the College. They were made in 

 search of eggs, and many most enjoyable afternoons did we have there. For 

 two whole seasons we hunted, on an average once a week, for the nest of a 

 Ringed Plover. Several pairs were breeding, but, though we found the 

 young birds more than once, we never could light upon an egg. We could 

 not even decide in our own minds whether the nests were on the lower 

 plateau, or whether the birds hatched out up above, and then escorted the 

 young ones down to the pools. 



The following year Streeten's young brother had joined us, and we took 



