232 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



December, 1864, preceded, by a few days only, tlie lieavy 

 snow wliicli set in during tbe following week, and I 

 tliink generally tlieir apx^earance amongst us is indi- 

 cative of approaching sliarp weatlier. Mr. Dowell has 

 found them in several instances frequenting the Blakeney 

 harbour in winter, feeding on the samphire in small 

 flocks, and a male killed there on the 4th of March, 1847, 

 had assumed the red feathers on the rump, peculiar to 

 the breeding season, and others had slight traces of the 

 same colour. A small flock, which consorted with a few 

 of the common linnets, were also seen throughout the 

 autumn and winter of 1852-3, in one favourite locality, 

 near the pilot's house at Blakeney. Messrs. Sheppard 

 and Whitear"^ likewise allude to the partiality of this 

 species for "the seeds of the marsh sampliire (Salicornia 

 herhacea) and sea starwort (Aster tripolium) ," and state 

 that they are found in the salt-marshes near Yarmouth, 

 so that it is not improbable that those which visit us 

 in winter may remain in the vicinity of the sea coast 

 until driven inland by stress of weather. The above 

 authors were also informed, by the late Mr. Scales, 



* A very remarkable confirmation of tlie migratory habits of 

 certain birds of the finch tribe, is also recorded by Messrs. 

 Sheppard and Whitear in the following terms : — " At half-past 

 five o'clock in the morning of March 20th, 1820, a very extraordi- 

 nary migration of small birds was witnessed at Little Oakley, in 

 Essex. The attention of the observer was arrested by an un- 

 common chattering of birds, and looking up he beheld an in- 

 credible number of small birds, flying a-breast in a line extending 

 as far as the eye could distinguish them, and three or four yards 

 deep. Their direction was towards the south-east, the wind 

 favouring them ; then- height only a few yards from the ground. 

 The flock was supposed to consist principally of chaffinches, 

 linnets, twites, and bramblings. None of the two latter species 

 were seen in the neighbourhood after that time ; and there is on 

 those shores in the winter season an immense quantity of linnets, 

 more than can be bred in the neighbourhood." 



