( 278 ) 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK 

 FOR 192L 



28th annual report. 



BY 



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

 {Assisted by Members of the Norwich Naturalists' Society.) 



In presenting my Norfolk Report for 1921, I wish to thank 

 correspondents in different parts of the county, without 

 whose co-operation these annual notes could not be carried on . 

 The Spring Migration. — Nothing verj^ particular to remark 

 except that Mr. Bird drew the attention of the Naturalists' 

 Society to the fact that the Thrush and other familiar birds 

 broke into song a good deal sooner than usual. April and 

 May were uncommonly dry months, and rather birdless, the 

 Chiffchaff was reported on March 19th, and a Wheatear on 

 the 22nd (S. H. Long). It was in this month that the spring 

 emigration of Waxwings took place, and this agrees with 

 observations made by Mr. Coopman in Belgium, where on 

 the 7th of March a troop of two hundred and fifty were seen at 

 Sart {Le Gerfaut, 1921, fas. ii., p. 46), working their way to 

 breeding quarters. 



Summer Notes. 



The Drought. — The year 1921, with its miserable rainfall of 

 only 15' 81 (E. Knight), was one of the dryest on record, and 

 naturally the drought had a great effect upon all animal life 

 from rats upwards, some instances of which will be referred 

 to under the birds which suffered. Game, of course, felt the 

 lack of moisture in some of the dry parts of West Norfolk, 

 and especially in the district of Thetford, where many young 

 Partridges and Pheasants succumbed. In Mr. Bird's parish 

 Partridges were seen trying to force their way through 

 wire netting in order to quench their thirst at a pond 

 on the other side, for there was no dew available, other 

 cases in point might be cited, some were indeed brought 

 forward at a meeting of the Naturalists' Society. On July 

 17th Dr. Long saw a family party of four thirsty Green 

 Woodpeckers come down to the edge of Langmere to 

 drink. Insects of all kinds aboimded — on June 22nd and 

 24th the Elephant Hawk-Moth had emerged, and tens of 

 thousands of Cockchafers. On the former date a large bird 

 was seen near Keswick all through that sultry evening 

 hawking the Cockchafers among the oak trees, it is believed 



