342 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vn. 



Unfortunately, on account of pressure of work, I have 

 been unable to set the trap this year, and only ringed forty- 

 six Starlings during the winter of 1912-13. Nor was I as 

 successful as in former years in capturing birds when the 

 trap was set. This was partly due to the mild weather, 

 and partly, I think, to the fact that the trap was often left 

 unattended for too long, so that many birds learnt their 

 way out. Norman H. Joy. 



UNUSUAL SPRING-BOIIGRATION OF STARLINGS. 



On March 10th and 11th, 1914, there was a sharp fall of 

 temperature both in England and on the Continent, with 

 six degrees of frost in Norfolk accompanied by sleet. The 

 Times weather reports showed a drop of 13 degrees in the 

 minimum temperature at Paris and Berlin, and altogether 

 it was a state of things which miglit be expected to have 

 its effect on birds somewhere. 



Accordingly, early in the morning of the 11th (about 

 6.45 a.m.), an extraordinar}^ flight of small birds arrived on 

 our Norfolk coast, where they were seen passinpr over 

 Gorleston, next Yarmouth, by Mr. William Hardy and 

 other persons. They had evidently just come in from the 

 sea, and when viewed were travelling at a height of about 

 three hundred feet in a westerly direction — i.e. almost 

 straight inland, against a gentle wind blowing from the 

 west (registered W., force 2). 



So numerous were the birds — whicli there is little doubt 

 were Starlings — a species which lias greatly increased in 

 Norfolk in the last thirty years — that the entire flock 

 extended, with some interruptions, for a mile and a half. 

 Nor is there likely to be in this any exaggeration, for another 

 witness, Mr. W. Cope, who happened to be on the shore 

 and saw in the distance what was presumably the same 

 flock, told Mr. Arthur Paterson that it reminded him of 

 the trail of smoke coming from a steamer on a still morning. 

 On the same day Mr. James Vincent, who was pike-fishing 

 on Horsey Broad, wliich is twelve miles from Gorleston 

 and one and a half from the coast at its nearest point, saw 

 some big flocks of birds which he at once identified as 

 Starlings : tliese were also coming from the direction of the 

 sea and were going west. 



Two days pre\dously — i.e. March 9th — Mr. Vincent had 

 made a note of a big migration of Starlings, viz. from five 

 to ten thousand, coming in from the sea and flying west 

 against a slight wind (registered at Yarmouth as West, 

 force 2). At the same time he saw about one thousand Chaf- 



