368 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



over the Bure-side marshes, also accompanied by a lady bird- 

 lover. We tramped miles through the mist-dripping grasses 

 that covered the river-wall sides and met at the apex, our boots 

 and lower garments being saturated during our tramp. We put 

 up a few Snipe from some moist corners, and startled a number 

 of Common Sandpipers from the flints that margined the river- 

 side of the wall (or embankment), and from muddy patches. 

 But our quest — the Green Sandpiper — was sought in vain. We 

 neither flushed one nor heard its shrill distinctive "tu-whit, 

 tu-whit, tu-whit." For some years past this bird, once a regular 

 and constant early autumnal visitor, has been becoming rarer. 

 Yet, strange to say, when a " ditch-fying " year obtains (when 

 the vegetation and silt choking the ditches are " thrown " to the 

 sides above them), one can almost always depend upon seeing 

 odd birds in July and August. They have to my knowledge, 

 although very solitary in habit, been seen to collect rarely to the 

 number of half a score in such easily to be inspected situations, 

 the exposed larvae and the insect-life attracted thither evidently 

 tempting them. It was a wet, dreary afternoon. The very slugs 

 had been tempted to an early ramble up the rough stems of the 

 thistles, and the nemoralis snails were out in numbers. 



Inspector Donnison informs me that the Seals in the Wash 

 had been seen to copulate, and young were frequently born. 

 Soles were a favourite prey ; and that the Seals often sleep under 

 water (!). 



September 4th. — A " wave " of small migrants. All round 

 the neighbourhood Redstarts, Willow-Wrens, Redbreasts, Wheat- 

 ears, and Pied Flycatchers were in evidence. Our little "Park" 

 swarmed with them. A puppy bustling into a clump of shrubs 

 and undergrowth turned out quite seventy birds. 



Harvest-Mice are fairly plentiful in the north-east corner of 

 Suffolk. I had a nest, well hidden in a clump of barley, brought 

 me on Sept. 6th. It was made of rather coarse dry grass-bents, 

 reminding me very much of a wisped-up ball of gardener's 

 " raffia." It was as large as a duck's egg, and apparently as 

 innocent of a doorway. 



7th. — Swarms of Common Sandpipers all round Breydon 

 walls. Sitting down to watch a bird, I found ere long a colony 

 of red ants objected to my near proximity. For an hour 



