436 BIRDS OP NOEFOLE. 



have never either seen or heard of one killed in this 

 county, but a curious example having the whole plumage 

 white, except the head and tail, is stated by Messrs. 

 Sheppard and Whitear to have been seen on the Stour, 



in 1825. 



PHALAROPUS LOBATUS, (Linnseus). 



GEEY PHALAEOPE. 



The Grey Phalarope, so termed from the prevailing 

 tints of its winter plumage may, I have no doubt, be 

 reckoned amongst our regular autumnal visitants, since 

 scarcely a year passes but one or more specimens are 

 recorded as either seen or procured; and although my 

 notes from 1850 to the present time exhibit two or three 

 exceptions to the general rule, these are owing, I believe, 

 rather to a deficiency of information than the total 

 absence of the species. By Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, 

 in 1846, this bird was also described as visiting us " oc- 

 casionally, but much less frequently," on its passage 

 northward in spring, but though such may have been 

 its former habit, I know of no single instance within 

 the last thirty years of its appearing otherwise than at 

 the close of the year. Of thirty specimens killed to my 

 knowledge in various parts of Norfolk, during the last 

 twenty years, two only have appeared as early as the 

 month of September, fifteen in October, eight in Novem- 

 ber, four in December, and one in January, from which 

 a pretty accurate idea may be formed of the ordinary 

 date of their southward migration. Both the excep- 

 tional instances in the month of September, occurred 

 in 1866, when an almost unprecedented number were 

 killed in different parts of England, especially in the 



