CORMORANT. 289 



The late Mr. flowlett informed Mr. Stevenson that 

 probably about the year 1820 a flock of cormorants 

 suddenly appeared in the neighbourhood of Bowthorpe, 

 near Norwich, at a time when the meadows were un- 

 usually flooded. Mr. Gurney also tells me that, he 

 thinks in the year 1828, a similar flock was seen one 

 morning near the pond in the park at Earlham, and 

 remained thereabouts all day ; one of these birds, which 

 he still possesses, was shot in the afternoon just below 

 Earlham bridge, and was stufied by Hunt ; there were 

 probably thirty to fifty of tliem. The ground was 

 covered with snow at the time, but Mr. Gurney does 

 not know the exact date. It is not impossible that 

 these two accounts may refer to the same flock.^ Mr. 

 Gurney has also a very fine plumaged bird, with a white 

 mane and pure white thigh patch, which he obtained in 

 the Norwich Fish Market many years ago. Mr. Rising 

 had a cormorant in his collection, which was shot at 

 Horsey, in April, 1843 ; an old male bird was killed on 

 the river Yare, at Thorpe, in February, 1855 ; an imma- 

 ture bird was sent from Yarmouth, in January, 1861, a 

 season remarkable for the intensity of the cold ; a fine 

 old male in full breeding plumage was shot on Breydon, 

 in April, 1862 ; and, on the 9th October, 1864, an im- 

 mature female was shot at Coldham Hall, on the Yare, 

 from "a tree on which it usually settled when driven 

 off the river by the swans, who attacked it fiercely." 

 ("Zoologist," 1865, p. 9405). Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 

 records the occurrence of three cormorants, at Cley, 

 between the 10th and 18th February, 1889 (" Zoologist," 

 1889, p. 334) ; these, like some others already mentioned 

 for the same reason, are worthy of note, as having been 

 met with unusually early in the season. As might be 

 expected in a maritime county like Norfolk, there are 

 many records of the occurrence of this bird, only a few 

 of which I have given ; it is not unfrequently met 

 with in inland localities, where, in addition to those 



* Mr. Gurney also informs me there is a tradition that early 

 this century a flock of '' black swans " appeared on the KeswicK 

 meadows. They were chased about for two or three days by the 

 late Daniel Cooper, of Keswick. 



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