246 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



in this neighbourhood to the " Zoologist " for 1865, pp. 

 9574-5, and I here quote them in full : — " A few speci- 

 mens invariably visit us in the v(;^inter months, though 

 but rarely remaining late enough in the spring to have 

 acquired the rich red throat of the breeding season ; but 

 their numbers of late, judging merely from the speci- 

 mens brought to our bird stufiers for preservation, or 

 exposed for sale in our markets, have far exceeded any- 

 thing I have previously w^itnessed, or of which any local 

 record, to my knowledge, exists. I have myself ex- 

 amined, or have heard of on reliable authority, at least 

 five and thirty examples brought into Norwich alone, a 

 large proportion of them between the 18th and 28th of 

 February, when from eight to ten were seen in a week, 

 and these have been brought, with but few exceptions, 

 from the immediate vicinity of the coast, as at Yarmouth, 

 Salthouse, and Blakeney. These would appear to have 

 formed a part, and probably a considerable part, of a 

 large flight, which, from some cause difficult to arrive 

 at satisfactorily, has visited our eastern and south- 

 eastern counties during the late severe winter, as, from 

 previous notes in the ' Zoologist,' 1 find they were 

 simultaneously met with in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, 

 and others were observed at the same time in the 

 markets of Cambridge and London. Of those killed in 

 Norfolk, the chief portion appear to have been adult 

 birds in full winter plumage, with perceptible tufts on 

 either side of the head, and their throats greyish-brown. 

 Here and there a bird showed slight traces of the red 

 patch, but not more amongst the early than the later 

 specimens, as of the two I noticed myself as having 

 most red on the throat, one was killed on the 10th of 

 February, the other on the 28th ; and an old male shot 

 on the 25th March, showed no indications whatever of 

 this nuptial tint. The stomachs of these birds, as usual, 

 contained a mass of long curled feathers closely matted 

 together, and stained bright green from some minute 

 vegetable substance, apparently confervce from the sur- 

 face of the water. Mixed also with these were small 

 flinty particles ; but, in such at least as I examined 

 myself, no further indication of their usual food than a 

 strong fishy odour," 



