64 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THE EASTBOUKNE CRUMBLES. 



By E. C. Arnold. 



My acquaintance with the Crumbles dates from the spring of 

 1899, but it was some years before I came to properly appreciate 

 the ornithological possibilities of the place, and even since I 

 have become aware of them I have seldom, except in the Christ- 

 mas holidays, been able to get there more than once a week, and 

 I have never visited them in April or August or early September. 

 Under these circumstances my list of interesting visitors must 

 necessarily be incomplete, but even so it seems worthy of being 

 placed on record as being well-nigh unique, if one considers the 

 size of the ground, which is only a few acres in extent, and its 

 proximity to a thriving town. Derelict pots and pans mixed up 

 with an odd bath or so and a sprinkling of motor oil-tins 

 stranded on a mud-flat do not form an ideal setting for the 

 delicate form of a Phalarope, a Wood- Sandpiper, or a Pectoral, 

 yet all these birds and many others have disported themselves 

 in apparent contentment amidst these weird surroundings, and 

 some species, such as the Redshank and Ringed Plover, have 

 even increased in numbers since I first knew the place. The 

 fact is that, excluding the Eastbourne end, the remainder of the 

 Crumbles is extraordinarily well situated and fitted to attract a 

 varied assortment of birds. To the north lies Pevensey Marsh, 

 having on its southern edge, near the 'Archery Tavern,' a fringe 

 of market-gardens, brick-kilns, and marshy pools. To the 

 south lies the sea, and to the east the vast waste of Pevensey 

 shingle. 



The " Crumbles shoot" begins with what is locally known as 

 the "Hassock," a sort of mere of the Aldeburgh type, with the 

 aforesaid pots at one end and a bed of reeds at the other — a 

 rare place for Snipe in hard weather. Then comes a strip of 

 brambles, hawthorns, and furze-bushes, which runs round two 

 sides of a depression in the shingle known as the "Ballast-hole," 



