MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM dUEAT YAHMOUTH. 375 



of adult Greater Bhick-backs on Breydon. They are keen on 

 carrion, fish-food having been none too plentiful with them. 

 Yesterday Jary saw a big fellow perched on the putrid carcase of 

 a big dog, eating heartily as this queer raft floated him along- 

 stream. The other day there was a regular stand-up fight 

 between two strong birds, beginning with a dispute over some 

 stranded morsel. They went at it " hammer and tongs " with 

 much noise and posturing, one at length seizing the other by 

 the nape of the neck, holding on to him determinedly, feathers 

 flying as they struggled. By the end of a quarter of an hour 

 some others had come up and had started on the twain, separat- 

 ing them, afterwards pursuing the tentative victor all over the 

 flats awing. These birds are keen on shore-crabs ; the latter, 

 when stranded on the flats by the fall of the tide, hide beneath 

 the Zostera and the "cabbage-weed"; this, the Gulls, in 

 extended order, toss over as they walk along the flat, finding, 

 crushing and swallowing the crabs with some show of intelligence 

 and success. A shrimper who had returned with his catch had 

 i occasion to go home with a hamper of sorted shrimps, leaving a 

 I -big basket of the unsorted. In his absence the hungry Gulls 

 I had discovered them, and had swooped down upon the shrimp- 

 boat, and by his return had devoured nearly all of them. 



During the summer three Cormorants had spent much time 

 on Breydon eel-catching. One bird brought to the surface one 

 largish eel as big round as an egg-cup, when some Gulls set 

 upon him. He immediately dived with it, the fish coiled round 

 his mandibles, and presently came up again, having either 

 swallowed it below-water or lost it. 



My friend Mr. C. G. Doughty, now of Gorleston, sends 

 me some interesting notes. When staying at Southwold last 

 y October, he, on the 4th, observed an immigrant Eedbreast fly 

 ' towards the pier, but fall into the sea before reaching it. After 

 floating some minutes with outspread wings, it rose again and 

 flew out seawards, and was lost to view, probably drowned in its 

 bewilderment. Wind was north-east. A Sparrow-hawk, and 

 what he believed to be an immature Black-Throated Diver, were 

 found on the beach after a storm. 



The following birds were picked up on the sands between 

 Gorleston and Gorton : — November 8th, a Coot ; November 18th, 



