112



Review.



cuted one to a sheltered part of the garden shut off by a door from the

other birds. Here I placed food and water, and as I left him I saw a black

cat, just above on the roof of a summer-house, watching me and watching

the Curlew ! I drove it off, and thought and hoped the bird was big

•enough to take care of itself. Towards evening we heard piercing cries of

distress. I hurried to the garden and saw the same cat just ready to spring

on to the bird, who still cried loudh 7 . The cat slunk away. But now the

difficulty was to find the Curlew, which had hidden under the gooseberry

bushes in the darkness. Eventually he was found and carried back in

triumph to the aviary, without the slightest resistance on his part.


Since writing the above (a fortnight ago) the Curlew has become so

tame that he will run up to me when I call him. I can now let him loose

in the garden for some hours at a time, and he will go back into the run of

his own accord. He eats almost from my hand, and has made himself so

thoroughly at home that he will even take his bath in the pond. The

Cranes are gradually becoming friendly towards him.



- REVIEW.


NATURE IN EASTERN NORFOEK. #


To many students of wild-bird life the expanse of reed-

fringed waters, the bleak sand-hills and mud-flats of Eastern

Norfolk possess a unique attraction, for here some of the most

interesting of our rarer birds make their home, or at least spend

a certain time during their spring or autumn migration. No one,

however, has had better opportunities of studying wild nature in

this favoured district, or could well have used his opportunities

better, than the author of the volume now under notice.


The first thirteen pages of Mr. Patterson’s book are auto¬

biographical, and give a very interesting insight into the author’s

life. His father was a shoemaker living in a typical Yarmouth

■“ Row,” where the cats were the young naturalist’s first play¬

mates. But he loved all living creatures, and sought every

opportunity of getting away to the fields, the marshes, or his

beloved Breydon Water, where he could study nature’s ways to

his heart’s content. When eight years old he had saved two¬

pence with which he purchased a small book, whose pages


* Mature in Eastern Norfolk ; by Arthur H. Patterson. With 12 illustrations in

•colours by F. Southgate, K.B.A. J.ondou : Methuen & Co., 36, Essex Street, W.C.

Price 6,-.



