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BIEDS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. 



On the afternoon of February 8tli, 1906, about 2 p.m., 

 the east of Norfolk was visited by a violent storm of snow 

 and hail, and what was very unusual, it was accompanied 

 for at least twenty minutes by incessant flashes of 

 lig'htning'. The storm came from the north-west, and the 

 wind was registered as Force 4. 



This unusual atmospheric combination caused a 

 stampede among the horde of Pink-footed Geese, estimated 

 at nearly four thousand, which usually make the preserved 

 salt-marshes of Holkham and Wells their head-quarters. 

 These birds, probably terrified by the noise of the thunder 

 and half -blinded by the snow, flew about in all directions, 

 exposing- themselves to the electric fluid, with fatal results 

 in several cases. 



I am informed that fifteen Pink-footed Geese and four 

 White-fronted Geese were picked up by different people in 

 the parishes of Bayfield, Holt, Kelling and Weybourne, 

 which are four adjacent parishes at from ten to fourteen 

 miles from Holkham. 



Seven of the Geese were lying more or less in a line 

 extending- over three fields, and these had possibly all 

 succumbed to the same flash. None of them showed 

 much sign of injury ; some had holes in their backs, one 

 had a groove on the neck, another had been struck on the 

 wings, and one or two are said to have exhibited no mark 

 at all. 



During- the same thunderstorm a Greater Black-backed 

 Gull was struck at Corton in Suffolk, and was, I believe, 

 seen by a woman to fall. Of the iiost-mortem appearance of 

 this bird Mr, T. Southwell gives the following account in 

 the "Norwich Naturalists' Transactions," VIII., p. 326 :— 



" Externally there was a track quite denuded of feathers 

 about three-quarters of an inch wide, extending- from the 

 right carpal joint along the anterior margin of the wing, 

 obliquely across the breast, and terminating on the left 

 side of the abdomen ; the skin was not broken, and there 

 was no discoloration. On removing the skin there was 

 no apparent trace of the passage of the electric current, 

 and the abdominal wall was not perforated." 



J. H. Gurnet. 



