84 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Breydon en masse, and betook themselves to the lower reaches of 

 the rivers. I surprised thirty or more of them by running un- 

 expectedly — to them — up a river-bank, putting them to flight for 

 a short time from ink-black sewage-water running from a sewer 

 outlet. These birds swarmed the outlying gardens, and alighted 

 on the public roads ; persons fed them from the bridges, the 

 kindly disposed fed them with table-scraps on their very door- 

 steps in various parts of the town, and more than one brute 

 made target-practice with them. One hapless bird would not 

 make way for a cyclist, and was accidentally killed by his 

 machine. 



Two or three times I visited Breydon walls during the con- 

 tinuance of the snow and frost, but, having a fair knowledge of 

 my own "fragility," I wisely, I think, kept off Breydon itself. 

 Coots in miserable flocks slouched about on the mud-flats, 

 demoralized by incessant slaughter among their ranks. Parcels 

 of wildfowl flew affrightedly to and fro, for every man's gun was 

 turned against them. " Strike " Sharman, a veteran Breydoner, 

 remembering bygone winters, was tempted again to visit the 

 mud-flats, and came home with the fore-deck of his punt covered 

 with Mallard and Pochards. I visited his boat-shed on the 30th, 

 and saw a row of Pochards and Scaups lying on a bench. " That 

 poor Crested Grebe," said he, "I picked up exhausted out of a 

 hole in the ice. The tide had fallen ; it couldn't dive away, and 

 it couldn't get on the wing." 



The poor old Bel-pickers, and other water-side " spaniels," 

 frozen out from drains and channels, hung dejectedly around 

 the quay-sides, or crowded into their North Quay shelter, be- 

 wailing the hard times, and indulging in reminiscences of similar 

 days in the long ago. 



On the 29th I had a look round the Saturday's market. On 

 Edmond's (late Durrant's) game-stall I saw a number of Mallard 

 and Pochards, the latter still in the plumpest condition, and a 

 few Common Snipe hung there too ; they were fat enough, 

 although not tempting eager purchasers, but scores (and hun- 

 dreds later on) were turned away as thin and useless. On the 

 countryfolk's stalls were numerous Tufted Ducks, Pochards, and 

 others ; they had been having a fine time on some of the Broads 

 — Hickling in particular — before the fowl were frozen out. Only 



