346 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



were so weak that the cats sprang on and caught 

 them as they flew near the ground. A pair of these 

 birds, which had completed a nest under the eaves of our 

 house, were both found dead in it before any eggs were 

 laid. From the above circumstances birds of this kind 

 were unusually scarce throughout the summer." The 

 Cypselidce are, in like manner, much affected by sudden 

 changes of temperature. On the 20th of May, 1859, 

 after a succession of cold N.E. winds for some days, I 

 was shown a pair of swifts that had just been taken in a 

 semi-torpid state from under the eaves of a church in 

 this city, but on being introduced into a warm room 

 they gTadually revived, and were soon anxious enough 

 to regain their liberty. 



CYPSELUS ALPINUS (Scopoli.) 



ALPINE SWIFT. 



But one specimen of the Wliite-bellied Swift is 

 known to have occurred in Norfolk, of which I am 

 enabled to give the following particulars through the 

 kindness of the Rev. Thomas Fulcher, of Old Bucken- 

 ham, who has recently presented this most interesting 

 bird to the Norwich Museum : — " There is a slight 

 inaccuracy (he writes) in Yarrell's notice of it. It 

 was shot in Old Buckenham, in the field between 

 the old castle and New Buckenham parsonage, in 

 the latter part of September (not 13th of October), 

 1831. The gentleman who shot it left it, whilst still 

 warm and bleeding, with a bird-stuffer in New Buck- 

 enham, but neither of them knew the value of it. 

 After a few weeks it was offered to me, and I had it 

 preserved. A friend of mine sent an account of it to 

 "Loudon's Magazine" the same year. In February, 

 1833, I made a pen and ink sketch of the bird, natural 



