4 
which then presents itself to a discerning observer, espe- 
cially when he remembers that for every bird he sees, two 
others at least come in the night. 
Buzzards, and other birds of prey, soar aloft in circles, 
while the eye which knows her flight will catch the distant 
falcon, or more frequently, the kestrel. Short-eared owls, 
at other times solitary, are discovered in flocks of fifteen or 
twenty; and the gamekeeper, going his morning rounds, 
finds that long before he was up there had been an early 
arrival of jays and sparrow-hawks, and other noisy thieves, 
whose depredations, now that there are neither eggs nor 
young birds, are practically nothing at all, though mis- 
chievous enough in the summer. 
Grey crows, jackdaws, and rooks dot the air for days 
together. Flocks of snow buntings, and various kinds of 
finches, appear in the fields nearest to the cliffs. Bram- 
blings, twites, and siskins are heard of at our birdcatchers’. 
Skylarks come over literally in clouds, and, mingled with 
them, are regiments of starlings, flying onward with steady 
purpose. The popular woodcock, tired with his long 
voyage from Norway, halts to rest on the first land he 
comes to, which is generally sandhills and “‘ marram ”-grass, 
after his nocturnal journey. The northern thrushes appear, 
and I have often been perfectly amazed at the number of 
common thrushes in our turnip fields; but when November 
draws to a close the main rush is over, though a few flocks 
come dropping in afterwards. 
It may be said, without any exaggeration, that every 
species of bird in Norfolk is migratory except pheasants, 
and partridges, and tame swans, which are parasites of man, 
and perhaps I may add, sparrows and green woodpeckers. 
There is a very numerous class which I must not pass 
