182 THE NORTHUMBERLAND COAST IN SEPTEMBER 



be a Red-breasted Merganser. It was either a female bird, 

 or a male that had not yet assumed the distinctive drake 

 plumage, for its head, crest, and upper neck were chestnut 

 brown, its lower neck greyish, under parts white, and back 

 smoky brown, with a large white patch on the wing. The 

 only other bird which it could possibly have been was a 

 Goosander ; but we had seen Goosanders, duck and drake, 

 on the fresh-water lakes of Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite 

 earlier in the year, so we were quite familiar with their appear- 

 ance. This bird was too small and too dark in colour; besides 

 there was a dark line across its white wing-bar which is 

 not present on the wing of the Goosander. The bird dived 

 actively, and we were rather interested to notice that when it 

 came to the surface the feathers of its crest, which one would 

 have expected to see clinging wet and bedraggled to the 

 back of its neck, stuck out jauntily as if just freshly preened. 

 Unfortunately it did not remain long for us to watch, but 

 swam steadily out to sea. 



We were disappointed in not having seen any God wits — 

 probably we were quite late enough in the season for them, 

 and had we visited the larger mud-banks of Fenham Flats we 

 should have come across them. We have on other occasions 

 seen large numbers of them in Waren Bay, and that they do 

 sometimes visit the beach near Bamburgh we discovered later, 

 for on October 6th we met with a single bird not yet in full 

 adult plumage feeding just on the edge of the advancing 

 waves, plunging its long bill into the sand and extracting 

 plump looking sand worms. 



But it was now time for us to be going, so we turned our 

 steps towards the little fishing hamlet of Seahouses — there to 

 discuss our note books over a welcome cup of tea. 



