bio 
mr. a. h. Patterson’s natural history 
steps. All during August these birds feed greatly on this 
worm. On August gth, some little time before an advancing 
flock reached my houseboat, I had thrown out the remains 
of a Plaice, thinking the white bones and scraps would cer- 
tainly appeal to them, but although several drew up and cast 
a glance at the offal, they would not touch it, but immediately 
returned to their worming. 
On August 13th the tide had very quickly fallen from the 
flats near Jary, the watcher’s boat, leaving stranded some 
hundreds of small (3-inch) Herring “ syle.” The Black- 
headed Gulls, and Terns (of which Breydon was “ full ” this 
autumn) had a right royal time, snapping them up out of the 
puddles and from the “ grass ” ( Zostera ). 
August 14th. A Bar-tailed Godwit ( Limosa lapponica) 
was shot on the Bure by a wherryman, who showed it to 
a policeman stationed on the Southtown bridge, just after 
he landed, asking him if he could tell him what it was ! The 
policeman innocently referred him to me, instead of taking 
his name and address, and confiscating the bird. I saw 
a solitary Godwit on Breydon on the 17th. 
' On August 18th Terns were flying all over Breydon. Several 
Arctic Terns ( Sterna macrura) joined the Common Terns and 
fished with them. They were easily distinguishable by their 
longer tail feathers, higher-pitched notes, and the habit of 
hovering, Kestrel-like, and in rather more elevated positions 
above the water than the common species. I noticed that 
directly a Tern struck a fish too large to easily swallow, it 
did not attempt to negotiate it, as the Heron does, but dropped 
it instantly. A Kestrel flying over Breydon was at once set 
upon and chased quite to the opposite bank. A Rook was 
mobbed unmercifully, one daring Tern attacking it from below 
drove it upwards ; repeated charges were made by the plucky 
little fellow, the Rook still soaring as if bewildered, instead 
of beating a retreat, until it became a mere speck in the sky, 
when the Tern itself could only at intervals be recognised as 
it turned and caught certain lights upon its plumage. 
When the water is “ sheer ” (clear), as it becomes directly the 
wind gets to the east, the “ syle ” are quicker to see the descent 
