Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/180

154 records, as it is manifest that at best they are very unreliable. A single bird may arrive in the neighbourhood and go unnoticed for weeks unless some one who knows it discovers it. Again, I may put down the date of my first hearing or seeing a certain bird here, whereas it may have appeared a fortnight earlier a few miles away. So, too, some birds do not make their presence known immediately on their first arrival. The Corn Crake is one of these, and it generally remains mute until sufficient shelter is afforded it: this is proved by finding them with pointers or setters when none have been heard thereabouts, or perhaps not at all that season.

On February 10th I saw, in the snow on the river-side, the footprints of a Bittern. It had walked to several places where the sedges were highest, evidently looking for a place of concealment, but the shelter apparently had not been sufficient, for it had then walked back to the water-side and taken wing. Two of these birds were seen several times during the winter at a private piece of water here, where the owner always preserves them: I am told that one or more are seen there almost every winter.

The dreadful storm of thunder and lightning we had early in March, accompanied by a deluge of rain, caused the river again to overflow its banks, and once more all our low-lying "carrs" were under water for many miles. In consequence of this, vast numbers of Peewits, which annually breed in these low grounds were driven away from their breeding haunts, and the eggs of such as had laid were of course destroyed. These low grounds called "carrs" lie adjacent to the river stretching beyond Beverley northward almost to Driffield, a distance of about twelve miles, and are liable to be submerged at any moment by the bursting of the river-banks. In former times the river annually overflowed, and all the adjoining land below a certain level became swamp and bog, and in many places open water. Indeed, up to the beginning of the present century there was no means of getting the water away. Many hundreds of ducks used to be taken here in decoys, and even now no sooner do the fields get submerged than they are at once frequented by great numbers of wild-fowl.

About the 11th of April, when the water in the "carrs" had partly subsided, a Ruff and three Reeves were seen, and the Ruff and one of the Reeves shot. The male bird was in transitional plumage, just acquiring a beautiful glossy black ruff,