368 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



ward to the eastern horizon ; and below the setting sun stretch 

 wave-like fringes of clouds, fantastically gilded on their topmost 

 edges, and deepening into furnace-red as he sinks behind each 

 ridge. The only birds on the wing are a few late-flying, family- 

 bored Sand-Martins, and a restless Gull or two ; while the only 

 cries heard at this moment are the laughing "yah-yahs" of a 

 Black-headed Gull, the " tweety-teet-teet" of a couple of Com- 

 mon Sandpipers, the petulant " lou-eet " of a Einged Plover, 

 and the calls of a flock of Lapwings on the marsh behind. 

 Some of these " Peweets " have used the mud-flats to-day, a 

 rather unusual proceeding with them. 



I have just cleared away the tea-jug, the remnants of a loaf, 

 and all that is left of a cream-cheese sent as a " tit-bit " by 

 Banham, the marshman's kindly wife, who, herself content per- 

 haps with the loneliness of a life on the marshlands, half pities 

 the hermit who seeks even lonelier quarters from choice. A lump 

 of steam-coal is glowering in the cabin- stove. 



What a delightful and characteristic cry of the oozy wilder- 

 ness is that of the Curlew ! One yonder is probing and picking 

 among the "grass"; a small Crab, a mudworm, an Idotea line- 

 aris, or a Shrimp in an adjoining puddle, all alike are fish in his 

 net. I saw one fellow this morning toying with a Flounder he 

 had whipped up at the end of his sickle-bill. It travelled no 

 higher up it ; he twisted and turned it round and round, flung it 

 on the wrack, picked it up again, shook it, all the while knowing 

 he could not hope to swallow it, nor did he try to ; then he flung 

 it away in disgust. Why is it the Curlew can never pass by a 

 " butt"? The moment after he had thrown it down he ran to a 

 worm-bore, and dragged out a rag-worm. See ! how the fellow 

 jumped! He had disturbed a clam, in passing on, that ejected 

 a small jet of water as it sank to safer hiding. I have often 

 been amused at the Curlew's nervousness. 



Hearken ! how's that for a concert ? Twenty-two freshly 

 arrived Curlews, all calling at once, now flew " upwards," 

 coming in from seaward— upwards, i.e., towards the Burgh end 

 of Breydon. They may rest a while there on the flats, but more 

 probably they mean to keep on. They were hard to count at 

 close quarters until they obliquely opened out a couple of fur- 

 longs away, and thus made their counting easier through this 



