392 BIRDS OF NOKFOLK. 



all of them the bar across the secondaries had a bright 

 chesmit hue, and the wing-coverts — brighter and clearer 

 than in any previous examples — showed a dark buff 

 edging to each feather, looking like some dehcate water 

 mark. The wing primaries and middle tail feathers 

 were light greyish blue, with some appearance of the 

 '^ bloom" observable on the feathers of herons and some 

 other birds. The first primary shaft, though beginning 

 to elongate, had not yet projected beyond the second 

 feather in any one of these birds, and the tail feathers, 

 of unequal lengths, had not attained their perfect 

 growth; varying from three inches to five inches, six 

 inches, and six and a-half inches. They were all in high 

 condition, indeed, more plump than any I had previously 

 handled ; one bird weighing ten and a-half ounces, and 

 two, together, exactly twenty-one ounces. Their crops 

 were filled with seeds, similar in character to those before 

 identified; and the gizzards, as usual, contained the 

 debris of such food, mixed with numerous small white 

 particles of flint. I could have wished that one at least 

 out of these three autumn specimens had been a female, 

 as the appearance of the ovaries so late in the season 

 might have shown some indication of the birds having 

 laid their usual number of eggs during the summer 

 months. The appearance of the testes in these adult males 

 certainly favoured the impression that although no nests 

 had been discovered in this district, yet that such might 

 have existed on the extensive sand-hills bordering our sea 

 coast, and the warrens of the interior ; more particularly 

 since these wanderers were known to have bred, during 

 that year, at certain places in Denmark and Holland.^ 



* Professor Eeinhardt supplied Mr. Newton with information 

 respecting some nests of this species, found at Eiugkjobing and 

 Nymindegal, on the west coast of Denmark. Early in June the 

 Professor received se^^eral living birds, which had been snared "on 

 their nests" in the above-named districts, together with four of their 



