428 i\Ir. J. H. Gurney on the Effect of Westerly 



from Belgium^ and the liundred miles of sea between would 

 furnish its contingent to the army. 



Besides the occasional appearance of Gulls in these great 

 numbers, as in the two instances Mhich have just been 

 related, there may be seen almost every day throughout 

 October and November at Cromer single Gulls and Gulls in 

 twos and threes, and if the wind be west, so invariably is the 

 direction of their flight the same. As a rule they fly iiigh 

 in fine weather and low in bad w-eather, but be it high or 

 low they always go towards Blakeney, which is a small town 

 and harbour further west, beyond which again is Wells, with 

 wide " binks " and flats, where Col. Feilden has sometimes 

 seen large numbers sheltering themselves. 



To show how frequent westerly winds are on the east 

 coast of England, it is only necessary to refer to the meteoro- 

 logical table annually contributed to the ' Transactions of 

 the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society' by Mr. A. 

 W. Preston, in which the direction of the wind is noted from 

 the vane on the spire of Norwich cathedral. In 1883 we 

 had in Norfolk 173 days of west wind, in 1884 165 ; but I 

 prefer to give, for comparison, eight years in a tabular state- 

 ment, as a sample of what generally takes place. 



Nor is the west wind confined to England alone : all 

 round the globe it is the prevailing wind north of lat. 30°, 

 and doubtless the Gulls of the Atlantic often fly against it 

 or commit themselves to its mercy and allow thgmselves to 

 be whirled away with it. Mr. Harvie-Brown says west wind 

 was unusually prevalent in Scotland in 1884, when I saw 

 this great " migration " or westward movement. ' From 

 lat. 30° southwards to the equator north-east winds prevail 

 round the globe, and probably the direction of flight is 

 reversed by these birds, which, it may be, go east when they 

 get into these 'Hrade winds.'' Birds of any kind seldom cross 



