NOTES FROM THE NORFOLK COAST. 133 



boat as we sat at lunch in Morston Creek. Fewer Ringed Plover 

 about. 



Oct. 9th. Cromer. Wind W., light, going to calm. Several 

 small lots of Scoters flying west low over the sea, also one lot of 

 Mallard in the morning. A flock of about a hundred Chaffinches, 

 looking like recent arrivals, on the Lighthouse Hills. 



Oct. 10th. Calm morning, but soon after we got back to Cley, 

 about 10 a.m., it came on to blow hard from N.E., and we were 

 able to do very little with a boat — the best chance of getting near 

 birds— during the rest of our stay. Squally rain during the day. 

 Some lots of Duck and Wigeon about, and one Mallard came 

 along the east bank at evening flight time. A Skua right up the 

 channel. A tired Golden-crested Wren, very unwilling to rise, 

 in tbe scrub just inside the pebble-bank; also a few Reed 

 Buntings. 



Oct. 11th. Blowing very hard from W., cold. Some Song 

 Thrushes and a Redwing in the scrub : two Robins, one on the 

 sand-hills, the other in the scrub, and a Chiffchaff near the 

 Watch-house. About a dozen Twites feeding among the starwort 

 (Aster tripolium). Two Turnstones seen about the "beaches." 

 A single Snow Bunting near the Point, a fine old bird, which 

 I shot, and as I was kneeling down packing it up as well as 

 I could, in spite of the wind and the sand which drifted along in 

 a blinding manner, filling gloves, gun-locks, box, and everything 

 else, I saw three Sanderlings running very fast along the tide- 

 edge. I picked up my gun and shot one, when the other rose, 

 but settled again almost instantly for a second or two before 

 going off; their tameness, as compared with Dunlin, is wonderful. 

 We got one of the others the next day ; the third had disappeared. 

 One of them was a young bird assuming the winter dress, the 

 other was in full winter plumage (though I have seen some a 

 little white), which seems early, considering the condition of 

 other waders at that time. Old Snow Buntings, so conspicuous 

 in some situations, are very difficult to see when sitting on this 

 beach, as they are almost exactly of the same colour as the stones 

 of which it is formed — a blackish grey, fulvous, and white. The 

 Falcon was again disturbed from a bit of drift-wood, but lost 

 sight of among the sand-hills. A bunch of Wigeon migrating 

 west along the coast in the afternoon, and a small dark Goose, 

 doubtless a Brent, also going in the morning. A gunner saw 



