sliooL iiiignitiiig Snipe after March 1st ; but for the general weal 
of tiic coimmmity it wouhl be much better that they sbould not 
do SO.* 
All our gunner.s agree that the M'aders in our harbours are )iot 
so plentiful as they used to be. There are twenty gunners at 
Lroydon where there used to be one ; and the railway is projected 
to IMakeiiey, and rarlianient bixs granted the Act for it. Still, at 
these ]ilaces the birds are protecteil in the breeding sea.son. 
I will not dwell on the well-known scarcity of the Hull’. In 
three visits to our principal Norfolk broad 1 was unable to get 
a sight ol any ; and sbould not the local proprietox'S afford them 
more ]U'otection, the last breeding-place of this species in ICngland 
will be gone. 
'Ibere is certainly no visible cause for speaking of the Coot as 
a decreasing inhabitant of our broads, but during the last two 
y(iars I have been .‘several times to our principal broads, both 
in the sju-ing ami autumn, ami have seen very few. Lubbock 
speaks of it as “ universally di.sixersed in the breeding season:” 
bo has known oOO or (500 eggs taken in a season from one small 
broad alone. To quote bis own compari-son at the time when 
bo wrote “ A broad entirely devoid of Coots would be London 
without Sparrows, or Xewc<xstle without coals.” Hut if this was 
so in bis day, it is all changed now. It is quite possible to go to 
many of our principal broads, such as llickling, Ilor.sev, Filbv, 
South alsbam, IJanwortb, and Dreydon without seeing a single 
Coot, ami they are equally scarce on Fritton and Oulton in 
Suffolk. 
* In the lengthy and somewhat acrimonious discussions in the ‘ Field ’ 
newspapei', and among the Justices assembled at Quarter Sessions, a 
difference has e.xisted as to tlie date when Wild Ducks and Snipes begin 
to lay. Having been occasionally apitealed to, I liave been at some trouble 
to collect all the reliable information I could on the subject. I am indebted 
))rincii>all} to the note-books of iUr. W. £. Clarke, Professor Xewton, 
ftir. h . Norgate, and .Air. R. M. Christy for forty dates of AVild Ducks’ 
nests and fifty-nine of Snipe.s’, which make it appear that the average 
date of deposition of the first egg is Jlarch 31st for AVild Ducks, and 
Ajiril inth for Snipes. 
