4 VOL. XI. | ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 249 
The only species of bird which did not greatly suffer, was the 
one which could have been best spared, viz., the Common 
Sparrow. 
On February 10th a welcome thaw set in, on the 16th a 
Robin was carrying building materials for its nest, and a few 
Wood-Pigeons were beginning to return. 
In connection with this tremendous frost, there is one 
matter which should not be passed over, namely the plague 
of omnivorous caterpillars, which wrought much harm during 
the summer in Norfolk, infesting trees of all sorts during 
June and July. It is hard to say whether this havoc should 
be correlated with the destruction of bird-life, but if there 
was no connection, the coincidence is singular. 
PREVALENCE OF WESTERLY Wtnp.—On January 9th there 
were two wrecks at Cromer, one a Greek ship, the other 
Spanish, but fortunately without loss of life. While the 
searchlights were playing on them after dark, their powerful 
rays revealed to Mr. Henry Cole, who was watching, quantities 
of Gulls passing, together with, some smaller birds. This 
was two days before the snow began, but the birds may have 
had some foreboding of it. 
During the remainder of the year gales were not so frequent 
as sometimes, but in the autumn Norfolk had its usual 
prevalence of westerly winds. The direction of the wind 
seems to govern the course of flight with birds on our rounded 
line of coast at Cromer. If closely observed, it will be seen, 
even when the wind is quite a light wind—force 2 or 3 
(Beaufort scale)—that three-fourths of them are going against 
it. This is especially to be remarked in Gulls, Lapwings, 
Starlings, Rooks, Chaffinches, Linnets, etc., and is perhaps 
more noticeable in October than in any other month. During 
October 1917 there was only one day on which the wind was 
not west or some point of west. On October 19th there 
was a pretty steady stream of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 
with many Herring-Gulls and a few fine adult Greater Black- 
backs passing Cromer both by land and sea. They came in 
constant batches during most of the afternoon, all going 
against the wind, which was light north-north-west (force 2). 
Not one passed the other way. 
The year has again come to an end without a Sea Kagle 
(although Mr. Caton-Haigh reports one from Lincolnshire), 
thanks to the head-money paid for their destruction in Norway. 
How different from the days when every bird of prey was not 
proscribed, and a Norfolk naturalist would count five Eagles 
on the wing at once. Nor has it been a good year for Wood- 
cocks, which considering the comparative immunity they 
