MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM YABMOUTH. 367 



detour, I might have made the beach walk shorter, from South- 

 wold. What seemed to me remarkable is their nearness to the 

 sea. The smaller " lake " (Covehithe) had a well-defined 

 channel scored in the intervening sand, showing how easily at 

 high tides the sea gained access to it. The water was very 

 brackish, almost salt, yet clumps of reed and rushes margined 

 it. I found a few crustaceans of an eminently semi-marine 

 kind. At Easton, a few yards farther from the sea, the water 

 tasted quite fresh, and had the appearances characteristic of a 

 freshwater Broad. It was crowded with Coots, and in all proba- 

 bility becomes a favourite resort of various wildfowl in the 

 colder season. 



A Wren had built a nest this year in a very curious position. 

 A village blacksmith had strung together a lot of rusty old horse- 

 shoes ; in the midst of this curious assortment a cosy nest had 

 been built, and young hatched and reared. 



August 28th. — Getting near the end of the close-season. 

 Birds simply swarmed on Breydon. When taking a spin round 

 in my punt, I saw ten Sheld-Ducks feeding upon the flats ; quite 

 two hundred and fifty Curlews, several Common Sandpipers, 

 with many small shore-birds — Binged Plovers, Whimbrel, Dun- 

 lins. As showing the dryness of the marshes for want of rain, 

 a dozen Lapwings had joined themselves to the other Waders on 

 the mud-flats — an unusual occurrence. A few Little Terns were 

 present, one or two with still squeaking young clamouring for 

 young herrings, which the old birds occasionally placed in their 

 mandibles, at other times gave them the added excitement of 

 making them pick them up after dropping them. Hundreds of 

 Gulls, including a considerable number of Common Gulls. 



On the 31st I saw a Spotted Shank, in company with a 

 Bedshank. It was extremely restless. I pushed my punt's 

 nose into the edge of the grass-clad "Lumps," the last portion 

 of the flats left uncovered. Here several Turnstones, a few 

 Knots, a Curlew, and a few Dunlins slept away the hour in 

 which all the softer muds were submerged. 



On the last afternoon of my holiday (Sept. 1st) I eschewed 

 Breydon, where the gunners (mostly amateurs) were popping at 

 everything that had not been frightened off the flats in the 

 morning. I took my blind bird-chum (B. Dye) a long round 



