414 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



appearance) lie assisted in running down a fine male 

 bird close to the Britannia Pier, and one or two 

 others were captured on the same day. They have 

 been observed in like manner on the Suffolk coast, near 

 Lowestoffc, so exhausted as to allow themselves to be 

 picked up by hand. Mr. William Barclay, of Leyton, 

 who has taken much interest of late years in this 

 enquiry, also sends me similar information from Cromer 

 and adjoining villages on that part of the coast. In 

 a recent letter he says "I have shot a good deal 

 in the neighbourhood of Cromer the last few years, 

 and we always find the e Frenchmen ' very abundant 

 near the cliff, more particularly between Overstrand and 

 Trimingham, on shooting belonging to the Hoares and 

 Buxtons, where they breed extensively." A keeper, in 

 the employ of Mr. H. Birkbeck, who looks after the 

 game upon the Lighthouse Hills and adjoining lands, 

 informed Mr. Barclay that in 1865 they were particu- 

 larly numerous, and accounted for the fact by saying 

 "that more had come over than usual." At Cromer, 

 also, the beachmen seem to be fully aware of the annual 

 appearance of these birds on the coast about the end of 

 March, and the boys run them down on the sands, and 

 sell them in the town for sixpence each. On this point 

 both Mr. Barclay and myself have received reliable 

 testimony from one of the most experienced and intel- 

 ligent fishermen at that favourite watering place. In a 

 recent letter, in answer to my own questions, William 

 Mayes writes, "All the information I can give you 

 about French partridges is, that they come over about 

 the middle of March or beginning of April, some ten 

 or twelve in a flock; the wind mostly south-east and 

 south. I have seen them when I have been out to sea 

 four and five miles from land. There are none come over 

 in the autumn." That all these concurrent testimonies 

 are indicative of some migratory movement on the part 



