MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM YARMOUTH. 423 
they roost, to be in readiness for the morning’s chance—to 
annoy the fisher-folk hauling their nets by snatching at herrings 
as they come up filled. Fishermen tell me that they actually 
shake fish out of the nets and devour them, a lot of Gannets 
and Cormorants assisting from below. I have found the skulls 
of Cormorants washed up on occasion, and believe them to be 
the remains of birds that had been entangled in the nets below 
and drowned. 
In the early morning it is curious to see the boats vigorously 
steaming home, a huge parcel of Gulls, like a swarm of bees, 
flying above and around, squabbling and scrambling for the 
broken fish and useless species thrown back into the sea by the 
men when clearing the nets. They will follow a boat to the 
harbour, and wheeling suddenly in a body they will make back 
for an approaching vessel. One may, with a good pair of 
glasses, observe the boats miles away, surrounded by a swarm 
of birds; each home-coming vessel being escorted. The birds 
evidently know tke full boats, probably seeing the fish; but 
never do they make an error by accompanying an outgoing 
craft. 
A live Shag, half dead from bad usage, maybe half drowned 
by contact with a net, was brought to me on the 8th of October. 
The Black Rat is still abundant in the slummier parts of the 
town, having runs under the floors of the huddled-up con- 
glomerate of cottages, warehouses, and outbuildings, which 
characterize the ‘‘ Rows.” Walls of huge thickness, but of 
doubtful consistency, are often riddled with burrows, and all 
attempts at extermination seem futile. The Rats are impu- 
dently tame, and will show themselves in broad daylight; 
migrating, as food fails them, from fish-house to cottage, and 
from cottage to sail-loft, just where food happens to be most 
accessible at the time, whilst grocers’ warehouses afford them 
happy hunting-grounds. Cats weary of killing them, and after 
a time refuse to eat, even if willing to hunt and capture them. 
Several houses have recently had their floors taken up and a 
solid under layer of concrete put in before replacing the boards. 
