THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 892.— October 15th, 1915. 



SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FEOM GEEAT YAB- 

 MOUTH (1914-15.) 



By Arthur H. Patterson. 



The past distressful twelve months of universal warfare and 

 strife have not been conducive to the peaceful hobbies of the 

 individual ; and the naturalist, among others, has been affected 

 by the unrest. However, I enjoyed a few intervals of recrea- 

 tion, although my notes suffered ; and the birds had been on 

 the whole much scarcer. Not a solitary Spoonbill visited 

 Breydon during 1915, nor, indeed, any bird of exceptional 

 interest, to the present date. 



The paucity of migrants, more particularly among waders, 

 had been very marked both in the autumn and spring, although 

 curiously enough the first week of September, 1915, provided us 

 with as considerable a number of interesting, although familiar, 

 species as I can well remember; my notes on these certain dates 

 will be given later. My impression with regard to the last 

 autumnal scarcity is that owing to the suppression of town lights 

 and the extinction of those of the lightships, coupled with an 

 almost continuous absence of " raw, rafty," misty nights, the 

 little travellers passed over high above head in unbroken flight. 

 Under normal conditions these illuminations would hold up and 

 bewilder them on drizzly nights, when they remain flying 

 around, calling incessantly to each other, until dawn appears 

 and dispels their embarrassment, and they pass on. Many, 

 wearied and hungry, naturally break their journey for a spell by 

 a forage and a nap on Breydon "mudflats." It is then that 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. XIX., October, 1915. 2 F 



