MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH, 377 



quite a menagerie of waders, most of them asleep upon the 

 ridge. I quanted to the edge of an adjacent rond, and lay for 

 some time watching them, at intervals pushing nearer, until I 

 was within twenty feet of the crowd. It was a bonnie sight ! 

 Twenty- five Knots, mostly greys, with here and there one with 

 a fawnish-tinged breast ; thirty Curlew-Sandpipers, some still 

 ruddily-tinted below; half a hundred Dunlins, several of which 

 had the black patch on the breast as perfect as in spring ; and 

 several Little Terns, the old ones flitting to and fro after young 

 herrings that, up to three inches in length, they brought back 

 with them, to be snatched by a hungry youngster whose appetite 

 never for long seems to be appeased. Presently I pushed the 

 boat's nose into the heap, when all the crowd took to wing, but 

 as I lay prone and still on the forepeak, my chum crouching 

 in the well of the punt to "listen," they^flew in again and 

 alighted, when I could have thrown the proverbial salt upon 

 their tails. I found patches of rond-grass growing, with tufts 

 of Salicornia herhacea, and a closely allied plant flourishing in 

 sufficient abundance to make that mud-ridge picturesque. I 

 am afraid that on the morrow a wily old hand-gunner of my 

 acquaintance haunted that spot, as often aforetime he has, to 

 the disturbance of my tame and unsophisticated little friends in 

 autumn-tinted feathers that had piped to me, and showed me 

 how they slept and gossipped, bathed, and hunted aggravating 

 parasites. Why can't men let them alone to live their ways, 

 as I do ? 



There was one small Sandpiper who gave me twenty minutes' 

 hard puzzling; be was asleep, showing me only his stiff com- 

 pactly-bunched back, and a suspicious tail-feather or two : but 

 for the place and company I found him in, I should have declared 

 him a Wood-Sandpiper. I still think that such was he; and an 

 odd glimpse or so of his head and bill, as he readjusted his 

 sleeping position, still further justified my supposition. There 

 was, too, a pronounced call like " Gif! Giff" as the crowd 

 bunched in their hurried flight. You never know your luck on 

 Breydon, and can mostly prepare yourself for surprises and for 

 tantalisation. 



Zool. 4th ser., vol. XX., October, 1916. aa 



