MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 371 



April 2()th. — About sixty Knots in one bunch on Breydon. 

 Every one as grey as in mid-winter; undoubtedly birds of last 

 year's batch. I noticed that the Godwit — confidingly tame — 

 not infrequently wrings and pushes his mandibles so deeply into 

 the ooze as to mud his forehead. 



Saw a nice muster of Shovellers on the Broads in the vicinity 

 of Catfield on April 27th. Got to within forty yards of a couple 

 who were watching my movements in turn. Brimstone butter- 

 flies very numerous. 



May 8th. — Unpleasant morning ; saw two Swifts. 



May lltJi. — On Breydon observed two Sheld-Ducks, an 

 Oyster-catcher, and many Whimbrel. 



May IQith. — Saw eleven Lesser Black-backed Gulls, all in 

 one flock by themselves on the flats; six. were adults — "like 

 pictures " ; two were third-year birds, and three were last year's 

 birds. Many Little Terns, in pairs, on Breydon. 



Two Spoonbills had been frequenting Breydon, off or on, 

 week ending May 19th. 



May 2drd. — Spent a rather weird night on Breydon. Caught 

 about sixty eels (captured 108 night before), the stillness of the 

 night being punctuated by the croak of a restless Heron, and the 

 sharp, clicking " ivick-ivick I " of the Godwit, and then seeing at 

 intervals a searchlight stabbing the dark skies with unexpected 

 suddenness. 



May ^-itJi. — Observed a Little Tern twice or thrice poising 

 itself easily in the air, putting a stray wet feather in its place 

 when on the wing, with its beak almost parallel to its body. 



Heard the "Whimbrel ou Breydon as late as May 24th, Next 

 day I observed Books, young and old together, progging on the 

 mud-fiats. A half-score Curlews still there. 



A considerable flock of Common Gulls on Breydon on 

 June 26tli, mostly adults. This species is the slowest and 

 least demonstrative of the family that haunt the mud-flats, 

 spending a good deal of its time preening its feathers, and in 

 sleep. 



Jane 29th. — On the borderland of my beat there is a little 

 fir-wood, backed by an undulating heath bright with heather 

 and rich with the green of the bracken, fore-fronted by a strip 

 of fenny land, from which it is divided by a long ditch beloved 



