NOTES AND QUEEIES. 115 



fluviatilis) were in full breeding plumage. On Feb. 21st the Herons 

 (Ardea cinerea) in Richmond Park were back on their old nests, and on 

 the same day I noticed one Great Crested Grebe {Podicipes cristatus) on 

 the Penn Ponds ; but on the morning of the 22nd I found it had left, 

 owing perhaps to the fact that most of the water was covered with 

 ice. — Gordon Dalgliesh (E ashing, Godalming, Surrey). 



Interesting Birds in Yarmouth Market. — One hardly knows whether 

 to express regret, or satisfaction, at the remarkable falling off in the 

 numbers of certain birds brought, winter by winter, to the market- 

 place. Decreased slaughter, unfortunately in our case, implies fewer 

 birds to be slain rather than a lessened desire to kill. Those who will 

 refer to my notes on this subject in the " Birds of Yarmouth" (Zool. 

 1900, pp. 164-167)* will read of a marked falling off in a period of twenty 

 years, a decrease which has since been accentuated from year to year. 

 The altered conditions of the country round about Yarmouth have 

 greatly to do with this local reduction in birds seen and shot. Another 

 factor in our barer market is the lessened interest taken in wild birds 

 by those who employ a cook, and certain birds which had attractions 

 for the local epicure a decade or so ago may hang for days, indeed, 

 until they fairly rot, and be finally pitched into the refuse-box. At the 

 time of writing a Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus), that in the 

 old days would have been "snapped up," now hangs by one leg on a 

 string, after having been suspended for a number of days the reverse 

 way ; and it is the matter of only a day or two longer to see the game- 

 dealer's penknife cut it down ! Such has been the fate of Curlews, 

 Knots, Pochards, and a number of others ; and so slow a sale exists 

 usually that those few gunners who used to sell their odd fowl just to 

 cover a fresh supply of ammunition scarcely trouble to bring anything 

 to the dealer. And there is but one man now who follows Breydon 

 professionally with a punt-gun — one Fred Clarke, a hardy son of the 

 marshes, who spends his days in Eel-picking, millwrighting (when 

 there is any to do), and in assisting the marsh-farmers generally. He 

 gives over everything else when there are a few wildfowl "driven in," 

 and his wife, who trots round with them in a basket,- disposes of his 

 game to the certain limited circle of acquaintances, who purchase her 

 wares more as a bonne bouche than a necessary article of diet. All 

 ornithologists who visit Breydon should look up " Fred," who lives 

 four-fifths of his days, and more than that of his nights, in a little 

 Noah's ark, not far from mine, on Banham's Bond. He is full of 

 birdy reminiscences, and an enthusiast in his way. Woodcocks, for 



* And more enlarged upon in • Nature in Eastern Norfolk.' 



