Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/194

166 birds, a note of explanation stating that the "Golden-eyes" (which is a common Norfolk gunner's name for them) were mostly Tufted Ducks. Of a total of twenty-two Grebes for the fortnight three were Dabchicks, one "Eared" (probably Slavonian), the remaining eighteen being Crested Grebes.

There is at the present time at Yarmouth but one dealer in wildfowl, Mr. Durrant, whose stall is in the market-place; and many thousands of birds, rare and common, have passed through his hands. His birds are received from the immediate locality, and from the country districts around, the smaller common species hanging in bunches, the larger ones singly from hooks. Rarer examples are promoted to a more conspicuous position upon a fruit-tray. This stall is a fairly accurate gauge as to what species are at any given time abundant, or are arriving. Durrant himself is full of anecdote. On one occasion he assured me that during some sharp weather he had brought to him in one day over 1100 Common or "full" Snipe, for which he paid during the greater part of the day sixpence apiece. Of these he forwarded two five-hundred lots to London dealers, receiving in the course of a day or two in return a remittance to the value of one penny each, accompanied by a polite note to the effect that "small cargoes were coming over from Holland" with other wildfowl. In the severe winter of 1890–91 Durrant had a large supply of birds. I was fortunate enough to peep into his market-book on Nov. 29th, 1890, on which date were recorded the following as received:—

As this was an exceptionally busy year with him, I kept a record, usually counting the birds myself, publishing the same in the 'Eastern Daily Press.' The following two examples will suffice:—