MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 373 



of their quarry. On lifting it into the boat on an oar I found it 

 to be about twenty-eight inches long, as thick round as a florin. 

 The eel had been dead some time, and floated head and tail 

 downwards like a horseshoe in shape. Gulls are great scavengers, 

 alike keen on carrion as on fresh meat. Wigg, a gunner, assured 

 me he had, during some sharp weather earlier than this date, 

 noticed a Grey- and a Black-back pulling a freshly-killed Mal- 

 lard to pieces ; they had so badly mauled it that he left it with 

 them. On returning he found the remains perfectly cleaned. 



May 1st. — Some Whimbrel here ; more next day, and a 

 grand old Oystercatcher, several Swallows, and six Wigeon. 



Two fine adult Sheld Ducks feeding on the flats on May 7th. 

 On this date I also observed a flock of five hundred Starlings 

 wheeling about ; they broke up into two parties, when a Whim- 

 brel joined each, and for some minutes performed the evolutions 

 in perfect unison without a single error. 



Early morning at Brundall, on the Yare, on May 8th, pro- 

 vided one with a Babel of bird- song. At three the Thrushes 

 and other songsters, hidden from view by the opening foliage, 

 were whistling and chortling in such numbers that the accumu- 

 lated chorus was novel, surprising, and indescribable. The 

 Cuckoo called at 3.20. I saw several Swifts during the day and 

 many Sand-Martins in the course of a long day's tramp — tow- 

 ing the house-boat down to the Waveney — along by the marshy 

 river banks. 



Eedshanks are scarce along the Yare, and by no means so 

 plentiful on the Bure as in my youthful days ; the Waveney, 

 with its more solitary and wetter marshes and ronds, being more 

 greatly favoured by them. They are exceedingly fond of feeding 

 on ronds subjected to frequent saline tides. 



May lQth. — Two Black-tailed Godwits observed on Breydon. 

 On the 20th I saw a Crow with white primaries feeding on the 

 mudflats. On the 21st a great fight took place among the 

 Books, one colony making a raid on another, pulling each 

 others' nests to pieces. 



June 1st. — About thirty Binged Plovers and Dunlins, evi- 

 dently as yet unmated, on Breydon. Some fifty Gulls, all 

 "greys," next day; and a few Godwits and Greenshanks still 

 with us on the 5th. An immature Cormorant for some days 



