MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 369 



a high altitude on December 2nd, flying east to west. Snipe 

 plentiful. A gentleman who hires a private Broad informed me, 

 on December 2nd, that on his water he had quite 1000 Teal, a 

 very interesting piece of information seeing that their numbers 

 for some years had seemed greatly on the decrease. 



December 19th. — Curlews plentiful on Breydon. On December 

 18th I obtained a Mallard in the market. It had the head 

 normally coloured, with a somewhat elongated beak ; no white 

 neck-ring, and no colour on the chest. Below, it was of a dirty 

 grey, with freckled markings after the pattern of a Pochard. I 

 sent it to Mr. J. H. Gurney, who submitted it to Dr. Ticehurst. 

 It was thought to, be some sort of hybrid. 



1916. 



January 3rd. — Walked across the marshes to the Breydon 

 houseboat. Saw a large flock — some hundreds— -of Duclins. 



Quite a notable inrush of mixed Snipe during the last days of 

 the old year and the beginning of this month. A lad on the 

 marshes shot nine Jack Snipe in a very short time, a goodly 

 criterion of their abundance. My friend Brooks on the Belton 

 marshes shot a Common Snipe : as it fell quite 400 got up out 

 of a fenny corner. Using a single-barrel gun, he was naturally 

 chagrined at the incident. 



January 8th. — Several Jays and some Green Woodpeckers 

 in a small wood hitherto rigidly preserved. 



January 13th. — A somewhat disconcerting flood around 

 Yarmouth, when the tide slithered over the banks of Breydon, 

 breaking gaps in two or three places. Not to mention the 

 flooding of some of the lower quart jrs of the town, the marshes 

 were soon two or three feet under water : the salts joining ditch 

 to ditch "turned up" no end of roach and small pike, which 

 lay on the marshes when the waters subsided, to the great joy 

 of the long-suffering Gulls and the Hooded Crows. Myriads of 

 drowned worms afforded the Black-headed Gulls a welcome 

 banquet, and a badly-needed one. 



January 16th. — Nine Swans flew over the " Moorhen " at 

 St. Olaves at 6 a.m. One could have hit a bird with a stone. 

 About 100 Geese passed over my house at Yarmouth on the 



