434 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



and some few of the latter hatched ones, I believe, 

 remain with us throughout the year. Mr. Newcome 

 considers that a portion of those reared at Feltwell are 

 to be met with at all seasons, and it is not improbable 

 that others, having dispersed during the autumn months, 

 are amongst those flushed from time to time by the 

 sportsmen, chiefly from the turnips, in the eastern and 

 more inclosed parts of the county. In the winter of 1847, 

 as recorded by Messrs. Gurney and Fisher in the " Zoolo- 

 gist" (p. 1601), an unusual number of examples were 

 procured in various parts of the county during the month 

 of December ; amongst others, single birds being killed 

 at Eeedham and Bawburgh, two near Norwich, and a 

 pair, male and female, near Loddon. In looking over 

 my own notes for the last sixteen years, I find records of 

 their appearance in every month of the year except May 

 and June (the height of the breeding season), but of these 

 by far the larger proportion were killed in October, as if 

 indicative of a migratory movement;* whilst the few 

 obtained in November, December, January, and February, 

 have occurred almost invariably during severe weather, 

 or just previous to some sudden change to frost or snow.f 

 These have been also, in almost all cases, either adult 



inland counties ; the same observation has been made in Hamp- 

 shire." I know of no confirmation of this very interesting 

 statement in any subsequent author. 



* On the 31st of October, 1862, a quail was taken alive in 

 Colonel Black's garden at Thorpe, near Norwich, in a very 

 exhausted state. This bird came into the hands of Mr. F. Norgate, 

 of Sparham, who kindly communicated the fact with several 

 valuable notes on other species. 



f In Ireland, according to Thompson, the large number remain- 

 ing throughout the year, both in severe and mild winters, has led 

 to their being looked upon, for many years past, as an indigenous 

 rather than a migratory species, in some parts being considered 

 as common in winter as in summer. 



