Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 189 



XXII. — Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, £^c. 



Wk have received the following letters : — 



To the Editor of * The Ibis: 



Norwich, February 22, 18fi2. 



Sir, — In addition to the three specimens of the Shore-Lark 

 [Alanda alpcstris) taken at Brighton in November 18G1, as de- 

 scribed by Mr. J. D. Rowley in the last Number of ' The Ibis/ I 

 am now able to record the capture of five others in Norfolk, be- 

 tween the first week in November and the 10th of January, 18G2. 

 The first was killed at Yarmouth on the 17th of November, the 

 second at Sherringham on the 9th, and the third at Yarmouth on 

 the 12th ; and no others were apparently noticed on any part of 

 our coast until the last pair were also procured at Sherringham, 

 during the first week of the present year. Having been shot in 

 different localities, I have been unable to ascertain how many of 

 these birds were seen on each occasion, or whether they wei'c the 

 only ones observed at the time. Most probably there were others, 

 which escaped destruction ; and as these birds were performing a 

 southward migration, it is by no means impossible that the five 

 specimens seen by the Brighton bird-catcher, of which he caught 

 two on the 15th of November, and one on the IGth, were the 

 remnant of a flight, already thinned on their passage down our 

 eastern coast. 



Very severe gales had visited us for some days just previous 

 to the appearance of the three November specimens, and several 

 Little Auks were picked up at the same time in different parts of 

 the country ; but although some of these storm-driven sea-birds 

 showed symptoms of privation, the Shore-Larks, both in flesh and 

 plumage, were in high condition. It is somewhat singular that 

 both those killed here and those netted at Brighton should all 

 be male birds, as proved by dissection, though diff'cring more or 

 less in brightness of colouring. I was fortunate enough to ex- 

 amine the five Norfolk Shore-Larks as soon almost as they were 

 sent up to this city for preservation. All exhibited a transition 

 state between winter and summer plumage ; but in those killed 

 in the month of November the bands of black and yellow on the 

 throat were very bright, and the horns plainly marked, more espe- 



