Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/187

Rh local gunners having, as a rule, respect for the enforcement of the Protection Acts by the Breydon Protection Committee, who employ a watcher, and with gratifying results. The following figures, culled from the rough log-book of "Ducker" Chambers, the watcher, which has been kept by him in a most spasmodic sort of way for eleven years, will give a fairly good idea of the frequency and numbers of spring migrants visiting Breydon on their northward journey. Small migrants have been seldom noted; of course over such a vast area many birds escape identification. A careful and enthusiastic observer might compile a vastly superior list both in numbers and species. The Broads, although slowly growing up, are still extensive. They have a beauty quite their own in their leafy setting of reeds and rushes. Of late years the rage for "doing" the Broads has banished the privacy and security which at one time characterized them. Some nesting species have disappeared, as the Bittern, the Godwit, the Black Tern, and the Ruff; whilst among some remaining a perceptible decrease is apparent, as in the case of the Bearded Tit. Many non-residents have become scarcer, although in sharp winters numbers of wildfowl drop in. The Crested Grebe fortunately appears to be on the increase.