
you. x1.) ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 253 
one mole, and a good many small rats and mice. Who can 
deny the beneficial nature of this species, which is of such - 
service toman? Yet I once counted the skins of forty-six 
Barn-Owls in a bird-stuffer’s shop in Norfolk, but am thankful 
to think that the efforts of the Norwich Naturalists’ Society 
have done much to check such senseless persecution. One 
of my Owls apparently carried off a small mouse-trap, no 
doubt having seen and seized the mouse which was in it. 
WHITE StorK (Ciconia c. ciconia). 
About September 9th a White Stork was viewed by several 
persons at Lowestoft. It took up its quarters on one of the 
, 
__ parapets of the Catholic Church, to which roosting-place it 
returned every evening, and finally took its departure 
unharmed. : 
> 
: SPOONBILL (Platalea 1. leucorodia). 
The first Spoonbills to visit their time-honoured resort, 
_ Breydon Broad, were a pair which droppped in on May 20th, 
as usual during the night. The wind the day before had been 
high (S.E. 4), but according to the Weather Report there 
was none at all at the time of their coming. Liking their 
quarters, and being well guarded by Mr. Jary, they stayed 
until June 5th. After an interval ano her appeared on July 
21st (N.N.E., fine) and stayed until the 29th, and that. was all 
for 1917. Judging from Spoonbills in confinement, there can 
be few such silent birds in existence, a great contrast to most 
of the noisy frequenters of Breydon. 
HERON (Ardea cinerea). 
On April 6th Dr. Riviere found four occupied nests at 
Earlham, which hatched out on April llth; this small 
Heronry, which has successively flourished in wools at 
Keswick, Taverham and Costessey, ceased at Earlham in 
1904. Mr. Carr had two pairs which nested at Ditchingham. 
The Heron is a species which does not increase. although 
nearly every Heronry in East Anglia is well protected. 
BUFF-BACKED Heron (Ardeola 7. ibis). - 
A male of this species was shot on some marshes near 
Yarmouth (being as usual in attendance on cattle) on October 
-23rd, as recorded by Mr. Smalley (antea, p. 146). Tae wind 
that day at Cromer was north-west, and I had notel Rooks 
on passage moving against the direction of the upper clouds, 
i.e. towards N.W. On the evening of the 22nd it had been 
registered at Yarmouth as W.S.W., force 4, which would 
