NOTES FROM YARMOUTH. 
471 
edge of the snow licked straight by the last flood tide and 
low water mark — some ten or twenty yards in width. I heard 
that for days birds had been passing, and what a host must 
perish ! 
The poor Black-headed Gulls fared badly enough. They 
left Breydon en masse, and betook themselves to the lower 
reaches of the rivers. I surprised thirty or more by running 
unexpectedly (to them) up the bank and put them to flight, 
momentarily from ink black sewage water running from a 
sewer outlet. They swarmed the outlying gardens, and 
alighted on the public roads : people fed them with crusts from 
the bridge — the kindly-disposed fed them on their very door- 
steps, near the Marine Parade. One would not get out of 
the way of a bicycle, and was ridden over unwittingly. 
Two or three times I visited Breydon Walls during the 
continued snow and frost. Coots in miserable flocks slouched 
about on the mudflats, demoralised by incessant slaughter 
among their ranks. Parcels of wildfowl flew dejectedly to 
and fro ; every man’s gun was turned against them. “ Strike ” 
Sharman, remembering by-gone winters, was tempted again 
to visit the mudflats, and came home with the fore-deck of 
his punt covered with Mallard and Pochards. I visited his 
boat-shed on the 30th, and saw a row of Pochards and Scaups 
lying on a bench. 
“ That poor Crested Grebe,” said he, “ I picked up ex- 
hausted out of a hole in the ice ; the tide had fallen, so it 
couldn’t dive away, and it couldn't get on the wing.” 
On the 29th I had a look round the Saturday's market. 
On Edmond’s (late Durrant’s) game stall I saw a number of 
Mallard and Pochards, the latter, as they usually are, in 
excellent condition. “ plump as partridges ” ; and a few 
bunches of Common Snipe hung there, too, they were fat 
enough, but scores had been turned away as thin and useless. 
On the country folks’ stall were numerous Tufted Ducks, 
Pochards, and others — they had been having a fine time on 
some of the Broads. Hickling in particular, before the fowl 
were frozen out. Only one Jack Snipe was noticed in the 
market ; but numerous bunches of Fieldfares, Thrushes, 
