482 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 
have selected Scolt Head Island. Now and again one has been able to 
identify a pair of Arctic terns in the colony. 
ScoL_t Heap ISLAND. 
On June 2, 1922, that is before protection was given, the writer visited 
Scolt Head Island and found only seventeen nests of the common tern and 
nine of the little tern. ‘There had been a ternery here from time 
immemorial—the local name of the island was ‘ Bird Island ’—but the 
eggs had been consistently taken by the local people and by collectors. 
In the following year, 1923, a public subscription was raised in the county 
for the purchase of the island, which was then handed over to the National 
Trust. Since then a watcher has been employed and there has been a 
very noticeable increase in the number of nesting birds. For example, 
the staked and numbered nests of the common tern during the past season 
totalled 1,340, with about 100 nests of the little tern. The first record 
we have of the Sandwich tern nesting on Scolt Head was in 1923, when 
there were 59 nests, which increased to 640 nests in 1925. Since then the 
numbers have fluctuated considerably. This year there were 30 nests. 
The great increase of nesting oyster-catchers on Scolt Head has already 
been mentioned, and there has also been a marked increase in the number 
of sheld-ducks., It is impossible to count the nests of these birds in the 
rabbit burrows, but on April 20 of this year, on the top of a morning tide, 
when the birds were resting in pairs either in the dunes or on the uncovered 
shingle ridges, the watcher and I, from elevated positions about half a mile 
apart, counted 170 pairs. We estimated that something between this 
number and 200 pairs were breeding on the island. 
THE CLey MArRsHES. 
Up to this time, and for the next fifteen years, our protection work had 
been confined to our coastal areas, but in 1926 some 400 acres of partially 
inundated marshes at Cley were purchased by a few anonymous donors, 
and to take over these there was formed The Norfolk Naturalists Trust. 
At that time these marshes were largely flooded by inroads from the sea 
and were the resort of numerous ducks and other wild fowl. Since then, 
however, a natural shingle bank has formed in the place of an old concrete 
wall, and it rarely happens nowadays that the sea overtops this barrier. 
At the same time, in normal seasons there are many pools with reed beds 
on the marsh, which are the resort of ducks and waders during the autumn 
and winter. ‘The whole marsh is kept undisturbed throughout the nesting . 
season and a number of ducks, including the garganey, nest on it. We 
hope that the black-tailed godwit, ruff, black tern and spoonbill will be 
induced to nest there ; perhaps also the avocet. 
To meet the outgoings—tithe, etc.—the marshes are let for winter duck 
shooting, the lessees being selected men of judgment who are as anxious 
as we are not to do harm to the breeding stock, nor to kill the rare visitors. 
Having formed our Trust we then, naturally, began to look round for 
other suitable places in the county that we could secure as nature reserves. 
We purchased a reed bed of about 25 acres, known as ‘ Starch Grass,’ in 
Broadland, as it was a favourite nesting site of bitterns and harriers and 
other Broadland birds. Bitterns still nest there, but of late years the 
harriers have nested just over the boundary, on the Horsey Estate, which 
adjoins the property. Major A. Buxton undertakes the protection of the 
property for us. 
