474 M r . A. H. PATTERSON S NATURAL HISTORY 
Mr. J. H. Gurney wrote me on December 26th and remarked 
on “ flocks of Skylarks going seawards.” He saw 20 Rooks 
that day eating a dead sheep. 
The Rooks round about Yarmouth kept much to the various 
outlying gardens, and when not progging for a morsel, sat 
disconsolately on the topmost twigs of small trees surveying 
the miserable outlook. They hunted singly. Chaffinches 
fared badly, and looked the most abject of all the finches ; 
one on the 27th, as I stood near a rail on Breydon Walls, came 
to within ten inches of my foot to search a tiny patch of bare 
soil. The Meadow Pipits seemed fairly merry, and hunted 
most of the time on the weedy edges of Breydon, and along 
by the river margins. 
Many wildfowl were observed on the rivers ; and at St. 
Olaves some good bags were made ; one gunner shot a female 
Goosander, and three Dabchicks were killed — for no possible 
useful purpose. In the neighbouring villages all the berries 
have been stripped from the hedgerows. Two Snipe wandered 
into a cattle shed on the marshes, where among the stable 
refuse they probed and prodded in hope of finding some stray 
grub or worm ; their footprints in the snow led to their dis- 
covery, but both happily escaped. 
Wild Ducks were plentiful enough on Fritton Lake, and 
big takes were made at the decoys, as many as 700 birds I am 
assured were taken therein in one day. To certain ditches 
round the west end of Caister, on the edge of the marshlands, 
ducks persistently resorted, and afforded one individual who, 
since the conclusion of the herring voyage just before Christ- 
mas, has done nothing but shoot in that particular neighbour- 
hood, unusually good sport. I am told on very good authority 
70 ducks fell to his gun. On one occasion he secured a Mallard 
in a most unexpected manner ; hearing an unusual clamour 
among some tame ducks kept hard by, he went out to see the 
reason of it. To his astonishment he at length discovered 
a Mallard sitting on the ridge-tiles of an adjoining house. 
It was but the matter of a few moments to slip back for his 
gun, and on his prompt return he shot at and killed that 
venturesome Mallard. 
