ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM RYE. 415 



spite of a chilly south-west wind. Small flocks of Wigeon 

 have begun to steal in to the shallow brackish sheets of water 

 near the shore on soft sibilant pinions. With them have come 

 small " bunches" of Teal, these birds making further inland to 

 sheltered ponds, which have become asylums of the straight- 

 jacketed reeds, and now likewise for them. 



Sept. 27th. Strong south-westerly wind ; rainy. A Grey 

 Phalarope on the midrips. 



Sept. 29th. Fine. A flock of Black-headed Gulls, chiefly 

 adults, on the sands, and with them a few individuals of Larus 

 canus, the latter species by no means common here. This 

 community kept separate from the other "gull" companies, 

 which have been greatly swelled of late by the immature Larus 

 marinus. On a calm evening, after that large yellow everlasting 

 flower— the sun — has drooped to rest, the Gulls, their supper 

 finished, troop out to sea to seek for places where the lolling 

 swell would rock them to sleep. In bad weather they go far 

 inland for the night, and are on the wing again, flying seaward 

 to the water's edge, ere dawn has come. As shadows of the 

 morning dusk, they pass over the cold brown fields of plough, 

 then high above the village of Lydd, asleep and watched over 

 by her lamps, which become each moment less brilliant, their 

 lights paling with the fog of morning. As grey shadows of dawn 

 they pass over the sand-hills; then, shelving on to the watery 

 sand, they yelp loudly with their hard-throated voices. 



Oct. 4th. Very rainy ; strong south-westerly wind. Another 

 Phalarope on the midrips, and three Grey Plover on the sands. 

 Five Lesser Terns in company with a flock of Dunlin. 



Oct. 7th. Strong south-easterly wind and rainy. Large 

 numbers of Pied Wagtails along the dykes. They are making 

 eastward. Several adult Knots on the Lydd Beach. 



Oct. 10th. A very handsome male Fire-crested Wren was 

 shot to-day on a tall apple-tree in a garden near Lydd. 



Oct. 12th. The main body of the late broods of House 

 Martins appeared on the coast this morning. They attached 

 themselves in parties to cottages and farm-buildings, in front of 

 which they hovered and circled in a sluggish manner. Several 

 were found perished on the window-sills, while not a few lacked 

 tail-feathers, looking in this state, as they flitted to and fro, more 

 like little bats than anything else. It would not have been 



