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ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK 

 FOR 1919. 



26th annual REPORT. 



J. H. GURNEY. F.z.s. 



In presenting the report for the county of Norfolk for 1919, 

 I have again to thank all those friends who have so kindly 

 assisted with notes, and especially Mr. G. H. Caton-Haigh 

 for observations made in north Lincolnshire — always very 

 instructive for comparison. 



The Spring Migration. — On May 6th and 7th there seems 

 to have been a movement of importance. Mr. R. Pinchen 

 remarked many Whimbrels and Knots, and on the 7th, a 

 very cold day with high wind from E.S.E. (force 5), he also 

 noticed many Warblers in the bushes along the shore, which 

 he had no means of identifying. There was nothing else 

 particular, except the usual vernal exodus of Rooks and 

 Crows. This emigration has for a number of years attracted 

 attention, and many have been the speculations as to where 

 these departing Rooks are bound for.* Heinrich Gatke, the 

 Heligoland naturalist, writing a few years before his death, 

 remarks {in. litt.) that many Rooks and Crows must go due 

 east from Norfolk, because they arrive in Heligoland from 

 due west in the spring, and pass on due east. So far we have 

 Gatke's evidence, but this would not account for the goal 

 to which all are bound. Some of the Rooks are journejdng 

 to Denmark, but where they ultimately make land must 

 depend, I think, very much on the influence of the wind, 

 which I believe to be a principal factor in determining both 

 their speed and their direction. 



The Autumn Migration. — The principal autumnal influx 

 calling for remark was that of the Curlew-Sandpipers in 

 September, as recorded by the Duchess of Bedford and others, 

 but the presence of so many Black Terns and Sandwich Terns 

 on the coast also decidedly demands notice. Strange to say, 

 in north Lincolnshire Mr. Caton-Haigh found both Terns and 

 Curlew-Sandpipers to be exceptionally scarce. The causes 

 which make these and other shore-birds common one year 

 and scarce the next, are very obscure ; some one species is 

 generally in the ascendant, but for what reason is unknown 



* It is interesting to learn that a similar movement of Corvidce 

 takes place in March on the coast of China [Ibis, 1914, pp. 566, 567). 



