NOTES. 191 



Martins. On October 3rd the young left the nest and disap- 

 peared with the old birds. 



In 1906 the same thing occurred. I have a note dated 

 September 18th, 1906, that the old birds were still feeding 

 the 3^oung of a second brood, assisted by other Martins. On 

 September 20th, 1906, young and old birds disappeared 

 together. J. S. T. Walton. 



THE MIGRATION OF SLENDER-BILLED 

 NUTCRACKERS. 

 In Norfolk. 

 October 4th, 1911, was a very still day in Norfolk, and this 

 was succeeded by a boisterous night and a gale from the north- 

 east, which, at 7 a.m. the following morning, was registered 

 by the Meteorological Office as E.N.E., force six, at Yarmouth. 

 On the 6th, my woodman informed me that he had the day 

 before seen a remarkable bird, unknown to him, perched on 

 an oak tree at Hempstead, which he described as brown in 

 colour with a white bar on the tail, and about the size of a 

 Jackdaw. I at once suggested a Nutcracker, and accordingly 

 the same day an example of this uncommon species, presum- 

 ably the same one, was shot at Cawston, a parish only nine 

 miles further inland, and forwarded to Mr. T. E. Gunn. This 

 showing of the white upon the tail was a feature noticed when 

 my son and I were at the Riffel A\\) in S^^'itzerland with 

 Mr. W. H. St. Quintin, in July, 1905, and I am not surprised 

 that it at once attracted my woodman's attention. On the 

 same day (October 5th), and not far from the same place, 

 distant from the sea about two-and-a-half miles, a Hoopoe 

 was seen, and a Scoter was met with near Norwich. In all 

 probability these birds had come in during the night of 

 the gale, as well as the Buckinghamshire Nutcracker, which 

 Mr. HoUis records (p. 167) as having been first seen on the 

 6th. It has often been remarked how birds of different 

 species come in with the same wind. On the 9th, a second 

 Nutcracker was shot on some low ground at Sparham, which 

 is a very Httle way from Cawston, by Mr. J. A. Sayer, 

 and has since been offered to the Norwich Museum. This 

 also was sent to Mr. Gunn, who made a careful dissection of 

 the ovaries in both cases, for they were both females. Both 

 these Nutcrackers belong to the slender-billed Siberian race 

 {Nucifraga c, macrorhynchus), indicating their eastern origin. 

 In one of them, which was exhibited by the \vriter to the 

 Norwich Naturalists' Society, the culmen measured 1.9 in., 

 and the upper mandible projected considerably over the 

 lower one. J. H. Gurney. 



