58 The Field Naturalises Quarterly Feb. 



very least, highly remarkable that such large and con- 

 spicuous birds should gain access to spots so congenial to 

 their natural habits without being noticed en route. 



It is also noteworthy that in Ireland, as well as in Eng- 

 land and Scotland, the majority of specimens have occurred 

 in places so near together. Ussher, in ' The Birds of Ire- 

 land,' says of the green-backed species (after admitting the 

 possibility of the escape theory) : " It is interesting to note 

 that the only two instances of its capture in Ireland should 

 have occurred in the extreme south-west, where many other 

 rare birds have wandered. The district is at a great dis- 

 tance from places where foreign birds are likely to be kept. 

 It is also worthy of remark that both the above birds oc- 

 curred in autumn, when the migratory instinct in the Rails 

 must be strongest, as the reports of their occurrences at 

 lighthouses show." What Mr Ussher says of the Irish 

 visitants applies to all three recorded from Scotland, and 

 to the great majority of the English examples. If escapes, 

 they must have escaped either from purveyors or purchasers. 

 All the former are publicly known, and their chief clients 

 also, although the latter only would probably care to claim 

 or proclaim their losses; thus the suggested "where from" 

 of the Norfolk Porphyrios is either London or Liverpool 

 dockyards or the menageries adjacent thereto, or the aviaries 

 at Lord Lilford's (Northants), Mr Meade Waldo's (Kent), or 

 the Duke of Bedford's (Woburn). In either case, it is 

 strange that a supposed escape should have flown N.N.E. 

 or E.N.E. when its natural habitat was due S. or S.S.W. 



Referring to the 1897 examples only, my opinion is that 

 they all came to us from the coast, for the following reasons: 

 The first bird secured was killed at Somerton, the nearest to 

 the sea of all the Norfolk-obtained specimens, and another 

 was seen at or about the same time and place. The second 

 bird that year met its death (about a mile farther inland) on 

 the Catfield side of Hickling Broad, July 3, only ten days 

 later : it was seen to approach the Broad the evening pre- 

 viously, in exactly the same fly-line as immigrant Bitterns 

 have for generations been observed to use. Its gizzard 

 contained some young reed-tops, broken-up fragments of 

 coleopterous elytra, some seeds (which failed to vegetate 



