VOL. xin.] ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 253 



the superfluity of Jays is due to the same cause I must leave 

 open, but there is no doubt about their having been very 

 abundant during 1918 and 1919, not only as autumn and winter 

 migrants, but as breeders, in all parts of the county. 



Classified Notes. 

 Rook {Corvus f. frugilegus). 



Disaster to Rooks on Migration. — As usual, the annual influx 

 of Rooks set in at the end of October. On October 23rd 

 scattered parties flew over or past Mr. H. Halls, who hap- 

 pened to be fishing off Cromer, but no flock exceeded eighty 

 birds, and probably at that date they all crossed in safety. 

 On the same day Rooks and Starlings were observed at 

 Blakeney by Dr. Riviere passing west for several hours, 

 while others kept coming off the sea. On the 24th the 

 passage continued at Wells, and on the 30th at Cromer, where 

 Mr. Henry Cole counted 120 traverse a given spot in fifteen 

 minutes. Meanwhile the wind had been very high, and any 

 birds crossing the sea could not but be hard put to it. On 

 October 28th it blew strong from the north with hail showers, 

 while on the 29th it was from east-north-east, and had scarcely 

 moderated at all, being still at force 5. On the 30th the 

 depression was at its maximum, the barometer went down, a 

 gale blowing from east-south-east, which at Gorleston and 

 Great Yarmouth mounted up to force 8 (Beaufort), but it 

 was not so much as that inland. Such weather coming at 

 a critical time of migration was pretty sure to prove fatal to 

 a good many thousands of migrants, but it was the Rooks 

 which apparently suffered more than any other species on 

 this occasion. On November ist and following days lengthy 

 reaches of the shore, both on the Norfolk and north Suffolk 

 coast, were seen to be dotted at intervals with drowned 

 Rooks, in some places only a few, in others a good many. 

 It would be more correct to say the remains of Rooks, for 

 Grey Crows, Gulls and other marauders found them out before 

 many hours were passed, and quickly reduced them to a 

 skeleton and a pair of glossy wings. 



Mr. W. G. Clarke, who happened to be at Sheringham on 

 November 2nd, reckoned that there must have been some 

 hundred Rooks lying at or near that place, and not a single 

 entire bird among them ; a lady who was with him counted 

 some of them, making an average of about twenty-four 

 between each pair of groynes, inclusive of a few mutilated 

 Grey Crows. At Cromer Mr. Cole found twenty Rooks and 

 two or three Grey Crows in little over a mile. At Blakeney 



