366 BIRDS OP NOEFOLK. 



Merrett must remain doubtful, but probably if not, one 

 was a copy of the other, and is conclusive evidence as 

 to the species intended.'^ 



Although of course more frequently met with than the 

 other members of this widely dispersed genus, the Manx 

 shearwater is certainly a rare bird off the Norfolk coast, 

 but it doubtless appears far out at sea, accompanying 

 the fishing boats every autumn, probably going south 

 from its breeding station, such examples as I have 

 notes of having occiTrred between the middle of August 

 and the middle of October. It is very remarkable that 

 so many individuals of the family Procellariidce, some of 

 them of great rarity, should have been captured far in- 

 land, and this species certainly is no exception. 



Mr. Gurney has one which was captured at Tivets- 

 hall, twenty miles from the sea, on the 9 th September, 

 1859 ; and, in Mr. Stevenson's notes, he mentions two 

 in his own collection, " taken in a singular manner near 

 Swaffham, in October, 1861. Mr. Ellis, bird preserver, 

 of that town, of whom I purchased them in the following- 

 spring, informed me that they were brought to him alive 

 about the same time, one of them having been taken in 

 a barley field, at Marham, hidden under the swathe, the 

 other in a field at Cressingham, near a run of water. 

 They were both very fat, and one was kept alive for 

 some days." On the 15th August, 1878, one, also said 

 to have been very fat, was picked up alive at Shottisham, 

 near Norwich. Mr. Prank Norgate tells me that on 

 October 10th, 1882, Mr. Newby, ^bird-stuffer, of Thet- 

 ford, showed him a stuffed shearwater, "Manx, I 

 believe," which had been killed near that place ; and 

 he also states that Mr. E. P. Mackenzie, of Santon 

 Downham, has another, " apparently Manx," which 

 was picked up on a neighbouring warren even still 

 further inland. Mr. Charles Candler tells me that a 

 Manx shearwater was taken alive in a harvest field, at 

 Pulham, near Harleston, on the 10th September, 1888. 

 Dr. Babington, in the " Birds of Suffolk," records several 



* According to Edwards (" Gleanings of Natural History," 

 iii., p. 315), this " old draught " is still preserved in the British 

 Museum. 



