258 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



at Yarmouth in spring and autumn, although they are 

 not known to nest in that immediate neighbourhood."* 

 Miss Gurney records in her note-book (" Trans. Norfolk 

 and Norwich Nat. Soc.," ii., p. 20) the occurrence of a 

 little grebe at sea off Cromer, on the 13th November, 

 1830 ; in January, 1880, one was picked up on the shore 

 at Cromer ; and in April, 1884, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 

 received the remains of one of these birds, which had 

 struck the Happisburgh lighthouse with great force. 

 Mr. Lubbock, in a manuscript note on the margin of 

 his copy of " Bewick," says, " this species often appears 

 in autumn and spring in small companies of four to 

 eight on the broad," they doubtless being fresh arrivals. 

 Mr. Dowell tells me that when he used to shoot at 

 Salthouse, little grebes were found in winter in some 

 numbers, as mentioned above, on the brackish waters 

 near the coast known as Salthouse Broad, where they 

 assembled about Michaelmas. They received some sort 

 of protection from the gunners as being useful to decoy 

 other fowl. From this locality Mr. Stevenson obtained a 

 pair of these birds in December, 1862. Other evidence 

 of the migratory habits of this bird on the east coast 

 of England will be found in the Eeports of the Migra- 

 tion Committee of the British Association. 



Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, in the " Zoologist " for 

 1847, record an instance of what may possibly have been 

 only a local movement on the part of some individuals of 

 this species, but which proves them to be possessed of 

 considerable power of flight, as well as illustrates their 

 nocturnal habits. "More than one specimen of the 

 little grebe," says Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, <f was 

 taken about the 14th inst. (December, 1846) in the streets 

 of Norwich, and on the 23rd, a gentleman, who was 

 passing about eleven o'clock at night along the street, 

 was surprised by a bird of this species suddenly striking 



* A remarkable instance- of the sudden occurrence of little 

 grebes in considerable numbers on the Sussex coast will be found 

 in the " Zoologist " for 1868 (p. 1482). It is there stated that 

 between Lancing and Shoreham they appeared on the 6th Novem- 

 ber of that year in great numbers, and were said to be "in every 

 ditch," but on the following day not one was to be seen. 



