182 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



half submerged in the stained and stagnant water. 

 Timid Rails and more impudent and trustful 

 Moorhens swim in and out among the reeds 

 and flags ; and on rare occasions a Bittern or a 

 Wild Swan will fly startled away. In the bright 

 autumn mornings when the sunbeams play across 

 the water and light up the beds of reeds and 

 rushes, the Broads are made merry and gay with 

 bird life. Little parties of the rare and beautiful 

 Bearded Titmouse cling to the rustling reed 

 stems, and flutter across the open water from 

 one thicket to another, trooping along in a merry, 

 ever-active train ; scores of Coots swim gracefully 

 about the wide, expansive pools, holding high 

 carnival in the rushes ; and various species of 

 fresh-water Ducks, ever wary and watchful, detect 

 the slightest danger from afar. 



Throughout the autumn months the migration 

 of birds is in progress. The spring movements 

 of birds are much quicker than in autumn. Then 

 birds seem all anxious to get to their summer 

 quarters as quickly as possible ; but on the return 

 journey they travel much more leisurely, and, of 

 course, in larger numbers. Birds are also more 

 gregarious in autumn than in spring, and many 

 species fraternise for the journey which are never 

 seen in company at any other time. Night and 

 day these little feathered travellers are hastening 

 southward following summer in one vast flutter- 

 ing throng. In the still autumn nights we may 

 often hear the cries of these migratory birds, as 



