SOME BIRD NOTES 259 



Replies to my query were speedily forthcoming, and a 

 note appeared at once as follows : 



" SIR, Large flocks of birds passed over North Heigham 

 after 10.30 on Friday night, and were crossing for hours. 

 Would they be incoming or outgoing migrants ? " T D " 



" W. G. C." wrote: "The arrested migration, which 'John 

 Knowlittle' noted at Norwich and Yarmouth on Friday 

 night, may possibly have extended for a considerable dis- 

 tance along the east coast. It was forced on one's notice at 

 Felixstowe, where the night was very rough, and the calls 

 of birds over the town were audible for many hours. They 

 did not appear to be passing over in comparative quietude, 

 as is, I believe, usual on migration, but were apparently 

 circling round, dazed by the lights of the streets and sea- 

 front. The cries were not easily recognisable by one whose 

 chief natural history experience has been inland, but they 

 were undoubtedly those of waders, whilst some of the 

 harsher calls seemed to be those of gulls." 



Mr. J. H. Gurney wrote me on August 28th : " I hear 

 this morning from Cambridge that at that place also 

 numbers of birds were attracted by the lamps on Friday 

 night." 



So it would appear that this movement was widespread in 

 East Anglia. 



PENCILLED IN A BOOK 



One of my chief delights in looking over the contents of 

 an old bookstall is to turn over the flyleaves, and to conjure 

 up all sorts of romances from the strange names and stranger 

 remarks often found pencilled in some ancient volume. Old 

 natural history books have a peculiar fascination for me, for 

 I have more than once read interesting comments written in 

 pencil on the margins by an interested reader long laid under 

 the grass, but whose deductions and observations remain 

 fresh and entertaining. I will refer to one book only, an old 

 edition of White's Selborne^ which I purchased for a few pence. 

 Among other " notes " were the following : 



" Swallows and young. It must be borne in mind that the 

 first brood of martins and swallows are led out or 

 driven forth from their nests by the old ones to 



