0BN1TE0L0GIGAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK. 83 



broad. The mud-flats on this part of Breydon water remain 

 longest uncovered. On July 30th I found them at their old 

 quarters, with many Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls, a 

 Whimbrel or two, and a pair of handsome Sheld-Ducks. The 

 Spoonbills were probably feeding on mud shrimps and worms ; 

 but a Heron which was near them caught a flounder. There was 

 also an Avocet at the farther end of the Broad, where I did not 

 go, the scene reminding me of days on the Nile, where a hundred 

 Spoonbills may be seen in a flock, and Avocets also. 



In the middle of July, as I learned from Mr. Pashley, there 

 were a couple at Cley for a week or two, and another at the 

 beginning of August, very likely the same which had been at 

 Breydon ; and it is satisfactory to know that the law was observed, 

 and they were unmolested. There is really no more remarkable 

 instance of what can be done by protection than the annual 

 return of the Spoonbills in such considerable numbers to their 

 ancient Norfolk haunts; but unless the Breydon Wild Birds' 

 Protection Society receives more pecuniary support than it has 

 had in the past, it will be unable to continue carrying on its good 

 work. There is still a place in Holland fortunately strictly pro- 

 tected, where about six hundred Spoonbills nest in security 

 (Sclater, Bull. B. O. C. viii. p. 10), from whence some think our 

 stock come ; but Mr. Patterson is informed that a new railway 

 runs near their " spoonery," which is ominous. 



The annexed copy (p. 84) of a photograph by Mr. G. C. Davies, 

 represents a heronry at Reedham, supposed to be on the same 

 site as the wood in which the Spoonbills nested in Sir Thomas 

 Browne's time. It is just on the rising ground above where the 

 marshes commence, and I learn from the owner that there were 

 nearly ninety nests this summer. No doubt, when Spoonbills 

 nested there, their food supply was drawn from Breydon flats. 



The fifteen Great Bustards which were imported from Spain, 

 and turned down, feather-pinioned, near Thetford (see last year's 

 Notes), as I learn from Mr. Hill, who has obliged me with 

 reports from time to time, remained on the same estate until the 

 middle of June, when, their wing-feathers being grown, all but 

 four or five took their departure, and two were almost immediately 

 shot at Finningham, in Suffolk. Both the slayer and his master 

 were prosecuted, but this could not bring the Bustards to life 



H 2 



