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ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK 

 FOR 1916. 



23rd annual report. 



BY 



J H. GURNEY, F.Z.S. 



The Zoologist having now unfortunately come to an end, 

 these annual Norfolk notes are transferred to British Birds, 

 but at the request of Mr. Witherby, they are this year 

 arranged under species and other headings, instead of being 

 in diary form as hitherto, a method which is j^robably more 

 convenient for future reference. 



]\IlGRATION. 



There is not very much to be said about migration during 

 the earher portion of 1916. On February 22nd, a spell of 

 cold weather set in, accompanied by snow, which in a few 

 days was thirteen inches deep on the level. It was curious 

 to notice how all birds fled before it. For three weeks the 

 country was practically birdless, Wood-Pigeons, LapArings, 

 Rooks, Starhngs, Snipe and Wild Ducks, all had gone. The 

 Redwings were the last to go, but even they departed, and 

 nothing remained but a few hardy Blackbirds, some flocks 

 of Chaffinches and Bramblings under the beech trees, and 

 half starved Larks among the white turnips. On the 24th 

 and 25th, after a heavy fall, it was reported that manj^ small 

 birds were to be seen following the coast-line at Cromer, 

 where their instinct taught them the ground would be softer. 



There was nothing calling for remark ornithologically 

 during the spring and sinnmer. June was a wet month and 

 July a dry one, and the hatch of Partridges promised badly. 

 Migrants arrived in their customary order, but as usual there 

 was a shortage of warblers. 



The great autumnal migration took place in the ordinary 

 way, but few notes came to hand, there being no observers 

 to make them. The influx of Redwings on October 17th 

 was steady, numerous flocks, some of them numbering as 

 many as a hundred birds, passing west and north-west in the 

 vicinity of Cromer and Holt. Fieldfares and other well- 

 known species were also to be seen dropping in. 



But the most important movement was that of the Poma- 

 torhine Skuas in September. This must have been a purelj^ 

 local influx, for none of that species came imder the notice 

 of Mr. Caton Haigh in Lincolnshire, or of Dr. C. B. Ticehurst 



