BIRDS 



turnip fields near the coast is often perfectly amazing. But when 

 November draws to a close, the rush of land birds is over, though a few 

 small flocks of grey crows, woodcock and sky-larks come dropping in for 

 many weeks afterwards.' ' This ' east to west ' autumnal immigration, 

 to which we owe the wonderful influx of rare species from central 

 Europe, and even from the trans-Caspian, which visit us, and these 

 sudden ' rushes,' form one of the most remarkable phenomena in the 

 whole range of natural science. The nature of the impulse which 

 initiates the movement, and the instinct (?) which guides it, are still as 

 little understood as ever, but much light has been thrown upon the 

 route pursued, and the circumstances under which the journey is under- 

 taken, by the investigations carried out by the Migration Committee 

 of the British Association as interpreted by Mr. Eagle Clarke,^ and the 

 tangible results are the number of rare species which they have brought 

 us, among which may be enumerated the barred warbler, icterine 

 warbler, blue-throated and aquatic warblers, the great-spotted cuckoo, 

 Pallas's warbler, red-breasted flycatcher, and many others, all of which 

 we owe to these autumnal flights. 



Decoys were numerous in Norfolk early in the present century, 

 and an interesting account of their working and construction will be 

 found in Lubbock's Fauna of Norfolk, edit, ii., pp. 134, 220 ; also in the 

 Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, voL ii. p. 538. 

 There are several decoys in the county still worked in an amateur way, 

 but I believe the only one now systematically carried on for profit is that 

 on Fritton Lake, belonging to Sir Savile Crossley. Here in the past 

 season (October, 1899, to February, 1900, inclusive), which has been a 

 very favourable one, 2,685 ducks and mallard, 21 teal, 13 wigeon, and 

 2 pintails have been taken. Very few teal are taken here now, and the 

 season ends too early for the spring migration of wigeon ; one or two 

 pintails are generally taken, and an occasional goosander ; coots also 

 sometimes figure in the returns ; but I think this is merely owing to 

 the accident of their being in the pipe at the time the fowl are driven up. 



If the county of Norfolk is the possessor of an exceptionally rich 

 avi-fauna, it is equally fortunate in having produced a long line of 

 naturalists, who have left most valuable information for the benefit of 

 their successors. The first glimpse of Norfolk ornithology is obtained 

 in the L' Estrange Household Book as early as the year 15 19. Some 

 hundred and fifty years later follows Sir Thomas Browne's Account of 

 Birds found in Norfolk, written about the year 1663 (not published till 

 1835), which for accuracy and shrewdness of observation has never been 

 surpassed. A long period intervened, and in 1826 appeared Sheppard 

 and Whitear's C^/^/og-«^ of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds, followed in 1829 by 

 A List of Birds found in Norfolk, by John Hunt, the author of an illustrated 

 British Ornithology, never completed ; a Sketch of the Natural History of 

 Yarmouth, by C. J. and James Paget, in 1834 ; Observations on the Fauna of 



' Gurney and Southwell, Tram. Norf. and Nor. Nat. Sac, iv. p. 262. 

 * See Report British Association (Liverpool Meeting), 1896, pp. 451-477. 



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