198 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



accounted for in the same way, as I have also observed 

 them myself on the south coast, m April and May, off 

 Beachy Head, and one or two that I shot proved to be 

 young birds. The almost annual appearance of stragglers 

 on our inland waters in spring and summer is, however, 

 more remarkable, from their strictly oceanic habits at 

 other times, but I believe these occasional freshwater 

 visitants to be merely migratory birds resting on their 

 passage towards the far north, where, as in Scandinavia, 

 they are known to breed very late in the season. The 

 following is a list of some of the latest examples that 

 have come under my notice during the last few years : — 



These were chiefly adult females and young birds, but 

 one or two old males appeared amongst them." 



To these I could add several subsequent like occur- 

 rences, the most remarkable of which is recorded by Mr. 

 Stevenson (" Trans, of the Norfolk and Norwich Nat. 

 Soc," ii., p. 210), " I may here mention that I have two 

 notices of wigeon flushed in different localities in the 

 county, in the middle of June, but still more remarkable, 

 if true, yet on authority I can scarcely doubt, that a 

 brood of young common scoters was seen on Hickling 

 Broad throughout the summer [1875]. Mr. Booth, who 

 was in that neighbourhood in July, tells me that he saw 

 some fourteen or fifteen scoters flying over that broad 

 towards the end of the month." This species has at 

 least on one occasion (as well as the velvet scoter) been 

 shot on Diss mere. 



Mr. Touell, of Yarmouth, kept one of these birds 

 alive for several months, which he fed upon barley 

 ("Trans. Linnean Soc," xiii., p. 616). 



