ii4 mr. a. Patterson’s natural history 
northerly wind, and opened in a fan-shaped sweep, dropping 
for a rest on the muds, but were gone next day. 
A few Lesser Terns had been seen on Breydon on August ist, 
where for three or four years past they have shown up in 
increasing numbers. In August, Herring-syle is usually abun- 
dant in the river and in the channels and drains of Breydon ; 
this year there was a singular scarcity of this fry, which is 
their favourite food on the east coast : from this cause, no 
doubt, scarcely any Terns visited the locality. “ No Syle, no 
Terns,” seems to be the order of things, just as in a weir “ no 
mackerel-midge — no salmon.” There was a singular scarcity 
of Jelly-fishes, and the various high-swimming crustaceans, 
e.g., Idotea tricuspidata and I. linearis, that are in summer 
usually so abundant. 
August 15th. An eighteen-inch Grey Mullet flung itself out 
of the rivef into the ferry-boat, to the great surprise of a solitary 
passenger and the ferryman. This occurred at dusk. 
August 21st. “ The night alive with Curlews and other 
rain-wearied birds ” (Note-book). 
On August 29th, I was asked to go and see a young Cuckoo, 
that had been reared from a nest ; it was fed on small slices 
of raw beef. The bird survived the following winter, and as 
recently as March 27th (1905) I saw the same bird, still alive, 
but in a rather ragged condition, in apparently good health, 
in the bar of a public-house in the town. It was content with 
a diet of beef, and bread, and milk, in which a few bird seeds 
were mixed. It is rather surprising that such a bird should 
live in the atmosphere of a bar ; and equally so on such a 
rough and ready diet ! 
The young northern-bred waders dropping into Breydon, 
usually bring to my mind Cowper’s lines applied to Robinson 
Crusoe’s companions : — 
“ They are so unacquainted with man, 
Their tameness is shocking to me.” 
This indifference to the human form was strikingly evidenced 
on September 10th, when a Curlew-Sandpiper flew in from 
seaward, alighted on a flat not six feet from my punt, and 
