258 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



AMONG NORFOLK TERNS. 

 By A. H. Patterson. 



On Whit -Monday, June 12th, of the present year, I paid a 

 flying visit to the quaint old town of Wells, and, in company 

 with Dr. S. H. Long, of Norwich, spent a couple of hours 

 exploring the marshes reaching immediately from the town- 

 front to the seashore. The tide was out, leaving exposed, in the 

 bed of the creek that passes for a river, patches of Mussel- 

 covered mud ; these molluscs had been spread there to fatten — 

 or sicken— in what must be, even on the flood-tide, sewage- 

 tainted water, a subject for the local authorities. I should 

 personally much prefer the clean-fed " Stukeys" from Stiffkey, 

 a few miles eastward out there on the seashore. A single Com- 

 mon Tern was hungrily eyeing the rather turbid bit of water a 

 few yards above the surface, making more pretence at than 

 really fishing. 



The tramp and scramble and leaping across the rough marsh- 

 land, intersected by numerous sharply-cut creeks that wound 

 round about in every direction, and traversed by well-worn trails 

 leading seawards, was made interesting by reason of meeting 

 with unfamiliar forms of plant-life, which, with the exception of 

 the Michaelmas-daisy {Aster tripolium), the jointed glasswort, 

 and the aromatic sea-southernwood, were altogether different 

 from those of my own neighbourhood. The thrift was con- 

 spicuously sprinkled around, with tufts and clumps of the shrub- 

 like Suceda fruticosa in equal abundance. The creeks and "pulk- 

 holes " gave evidence of a varied fauna and invite research. 



A pair of Redshanks had much to say against our intrusion ; 

 they evidently had a nest somewhere in one of the higher 

 tussocky corners, which would be awkwardly placed, however 

 tempting the area generally, unless beyond the reach of the tidal 

 water, which on the spring tides, I am assured, places the whole 

 marsh under water. I thought it rather odd that there should be 



