232 
British Birds : 
upper part, this creek is clothed on both sides with woodland, 
which, altliough the trees it contains are neither large nor old, is 
still favonrable to bird life. At the head of the creek is pasture 
and arable land, while at the bottom, bnt above the reach of the 
tide is a level tract of rough grass land drained by sluggish 
streams and ditches. Extensive mud banks were disclosed when 
I visited it, tlie tide being out, and thus three or four quite 
different types of countr\' were placed in close juxtaposition, the 
whole course being, Mr. Willford told me, one of the best 
stretches of country for observing birds in the whole district 
around. 
The first entry made in my notebook was of a Robin, and 
then I saw Starlings, a flock of which were feeding in a field 
that looked to me as if it had been given over to the weeds and 
was only now being put under the plough again ; something^ 
startled them, and with their habitual impetuosity, they rose in 
a flock, some sixty strong, and flew round the trees above me in 
the lane, their wings making quite a rushing sound as they 
passed over. Three Gulls, about the size of the Kittiwake, and one 
looked like a bird of the latter species, were seen over a turnip field 
although I was about a mile from the tidal part. Martins were 
about, and with them, for the first time in this district, I saw 
the Swallow. In a stubble field on my left, I startled a male 
Pheasant, which ran away towards cover as if I had been a 
poacher instead of a harmless field naturalist. A Blackl)ird gave 
the alarm — I suppose at me — and a Yellow Bunting, the only one 
I remember seeing here, rose and moved his quarters as I passed. 
A Missel Thrush attracted my attention by its churring as it 
passed over, and a Wren followed the Blackbird's example and 
gave its alarm from a hedge. 
As I surveyed the low marshy ground from a distance, I 
saw a .solitary Waterhen walking about feeding amongst the tufts 
and three Crows of some sort. Just after, as I was getting 
abreast of the woods, I heard a harsh rasping sound, like that 
produced by a policeman's rattle, which was new to my ears, but 
which, as it came from the wood, I set down at once as being the 
alarm of a Jay. I saw one man making his way along the outside 
of the wood and heard a voice, so I took it that there was some- 
