[APPENDIX B.] BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 387 



the specimen formerly in Mr. Stevenson's collection is 

 now in the possession of Mr. J. J. Colman, M.P. 



Meliozophilus dartfordiensis. DARTFORD WAR- 

 BLER (vol. i., p. 133). As Mr. Stevenson always con- 

 sidered Lotbingland to be geographically part of Norfolk, 

 I shall be justified in stating that I learn from Sir 

 Edward Newton that in the early spring of 1884 he 

 saw a Dartford warbler in a patch of furze on a small 

 remnant of heathland, in the parish of Lowestoft, on the 

 south side of Lake Lothing, and not 300 yards from the 

 houses in that town. But even this patch was stabbed 

 up shortly afterwards, and though he frequently visited 

 the spot he never saw the bird again. In the autumn of 

 1889, he observed a pair in another locality in Suffolk, and 

 returning the following spring found a nest containing 

 four eggs ; in a third locality, in the same county a fort- 

 night afterwards, he saw a pair feeding their young which 

 had just left their nest. These afford the first evidence 

 of the breeding of this species in the Eastern Counties, 

 where it hitherto had always been regarded merely as 

 an accidental visitor. It seems highly probable that 

 this species occurred, although perhaps very locally, 

 on the furze- covered hills which formerly skirted the 

 shores of the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, in support 

 of which it may be mentioned that the Thirtle MS. 

 recorded their occurrence ( near Lowestoft, but rare ; " 

 and Mr. James Worthington, who was with Sir Edward 

 Newton when he saw the pair, accompanied by their 

 young, in the past spring, at once recognised them as 

 the same species of bird he had seen on the hills at 

 Gorton and Gunton as a boy thirty years ago, and they 

 were, he said, by no means uncommon there when that 

 district was much less frequented than at present. It is 

 quite possible, therefore, that the birds recorded by Mr. 

 Stevenson from Yarmouth Denes may have been resi- 

 dents, and even that so extremely local a species, and 

 one so difficult of observation, may still frequent our 

 furze-covered heaths and escape detection, 



Anthus obscurus, ROCK PIPIT (vol. i., p. 169). Mr. 

 Stevenson's remark that this species " is a rare bird in 

 Norfolk," has not been confirmed by subsequent obser- 

 3A2 



