NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 383 



shell and some small blue butterflies. Big heaps of flowering 

 brambles and furze-bushes flanked the little slope, and some 

 firs brought up the rear. 



On May 22nd when travelling by a Great Northern train I 

 passed, near Hemsby, a long line of clover growing inside the rail 

 fencing, from which sprang thousands of small garden white 

 butterflies, their numbers and movements suggesting a snow- 

 storm falling upwards ! I heard next day that great numbers of 

 these butterflies had been observed near the sea coast, suggesting 

 an immigration. Whilst observing these I saw a beautiful male 

 Shoveller rise from the corner of a wheatfield. It kept pace for 

 some distance with the train, flying abreast of the next carriage. 



May 23rd. — A flock of some twenty Turtle-Doves observed 

 flying from over sea across the town. 



"Beed- Sparrows " haunt the reed-bed the other side of my 

 ditch. The male has a curious habit of perching on an out- 

 standing reed, flicking his tail and balancing himself simul- 

 taneously in a half-dancing manner, opening and shutting his 

 tail-feathers with a quick fan-like movement. 



For the past six or seven years in some trees overlooking the 

 market place in the centre of the town a flourishing colony of 

 Eooks has existed. This spring nearly a score of nests were 

 built. Two years ago a branch colony was established in a 

 clump of trees at the rear of the parish church, a couple of 

 birds succeeding, after some bullying by the older colony, in 

 rearing a family. Some eight nests were built there this spring. 



Redshanks. — On May 20th a pair of Eedshanks chose for 

 their nesting place the centre of an adjoining marsh covered 

 with dense reeds, which later yields a very large crop of litter. 

 The birds for some time had been very much in evidence, the 

 male bird being extremely vociferous and constantly pirouetting 

 around. He has been much addicted to perching on a rude 

 bench beside the path on the other side of the marsh, clamour- 

 ing frequently. He flew around often in an erratic manner, 

 occasionally stopping in his flight for a second or two and 

 quivering vigorously, at the same time piping querulously. A 

 Carrion-Crow daily scouring the neighbourhood, I have reason 

 to believe, discovered the unhatched eggs, which a prowling 

 juvenile egg-collector had failed, after much searching, to do ; 



