426 Mr. J. H. Gurney on the Effect of Westerly 



Mr. Cordeaux and I^ being on the look-out^ observed, though 

 not simultaneously, a very great migration of Gulls (albeit 

 the word " migration " is not altogether applicable) — he in 

 Lincolnshire and I in Norfolk. Mr. Cordeaux had his atten- 

 tion drawn to the movement, for that is a better expression, 

 on September 25th, and from that day to the 28th he and his 

 friends were absorbed spectators of very great numbers of 

 Herring- and Lesser Black-backed Gulls flying in the teeth of 

 a strong south-west wind. The passage lasted four days, 

 ten hours each day, and possibly during the night also (see 

 tlie account of it in the Sixth Report on Migration, p. 65). 



A fortnight later, October 11th, very nearly the same 

 thing was to be seen in Norfolk. On that day one of the 

 largest flights passed Cromer and the adjacent village of 

 Overstrand. There had been a very high wind, in fact a 

 gale, in the night from north-north-west, and at 11 a.m. not a 

 single Gull was visible from the clifiP. When the great flight 

 or passage of Gulls began I cannot say, but it certainly must 

 have commenced soon after 11 a.m. I did not go to the shore 

 again from that time until 3 p.m., when the wind was still 

 blowing from the west, but greatly moderated, and numbers 

 of Gulls were passing. How many hours they continued going 

 by I do not know ; but if they continued filing past for nine 

 hours, 11,880 must have gone by. This is reckoning that 

 a flock passed every minute, and tliat the average number in 

 a flock was twenty-two. They were chiefly young Herring- 

 Gulls and Lesser Black-backs with some Common Gulls 

 (Z/. canus) and a few adult Great Black-backs {L. marinus), 

 and now and then a Black-headed Gull {L. ridibundus) . 

 All were going in the same direction, west-north-west. The 

 next day the wind was in much the same quarter, but 

 the Gulls had all disappeared. On the 10th (the day before 

 this great flight) the Avind had been from the north ; on 

 the 9th I believe it was north or north-west, but am not 

 sure, and on the 8th north-north-west. On the 7th it was 

 north-north-east — that is, straight on shore at Cromer, so 

 that Gulls would have no advantage whichever way they 

 went, and accordingly only three were seen ; but these three 



