More Big Birds
How rich a document the diary and notebook of a watcher can be is very apparent in this report, " Wild Bird • Protection in Norfolk," edited by Dr. Sydney Long, himself a fine observer and, if one may say so, a most efficient watcher. It is full of curious and important information, though some of us could wish that now and again a little space were given to the insects and plants that also flourish on these queer spits, marshes, islands and peninsulars that line the southern boundary of the Wash. Seolt Head and Blakeney are peculiarly associated with the terns. Four sorts nested there and on Blakeney Spit alone there were almost two thousand terns' nests. It is not perhaps generally realized how many other birds, many not associated with the seaside, have been attracted to the sanctuaries and semi-sanetuariesi Hawks include even the honey-buzzard, a bird that Major Buxton described with delightful zest and particularity whed he was working for the League of Nations at Geneva—or perhaps when he was playing truant 1 He contributes to the report some valuable notes written with charm and pleasantly illustrated. Marsh harriers, Montagu harriers, Merlin and hobbies were all seen. A paragraph about the migration of small birds gives valuable evidence on the collocation of weather, especially particular winds, with the movement of the weaker vessels; a 'quaint detail about the duck, whose numbers and species are increasing, is that most of the holes on Scott Head from which rabbit had been expelled were used as nests by the shelduck.
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