Birds. 9805 



August 4. An immature bird of the great spotted woodpecker, shot 

 at Framingham Earl, near Norwich, where I have reason to believe 

 they nest every year, 



August 5. Two specimens of the little stint {Tringa minuta) were 

 sent to me from Salthouse, where a small flock had been seen on the 

 beach. The appearance of these birds, which had lost but little of 

 their summer plumage, shows how early some species of this class 

 commence their southward migration, 



August 6, A young ornithological friend, who is accustomed to dis- 

 sect and stuff such birds as fall to his own gun, informs me that, on 

 the above date, he killed a female nightjar, which was flying in com- 

 pany with some eight or ten others, and, strange to say, on clearing out 

 the cranium, he discovered not less than twenty-four white worms, 

 from half an inch to an inch long, perfectly lively, in the interior of 

 the head and the soft inner portions of the eyes, 



August 23. Wednesday, the 23rd of this month, was remarkable 

 for the extraordinary number of birds, which, from about nine o'clock 

 in the evening until three or four o'clock the next morning, were 

 heard almost incessantly over the city, attracted no doubt by the 

 glare of the gas-lamps. The night was extremely dark, and the close 

 sultry air foretold the storm, which, about 2 a, m,, culminated in one 

 terrific flash of lightning, accompanied by a deafening peal of thunder 

 and a perfect deluge of rain, for nearly an hour, I first heard the cries 

 of these birds myself about ten o'clock, and listened to them for more 

 than an hour in my garden, without being able, even with the aid of 

 adjacent gas-lamps, to distinguish anything. By their notes the main 

 body seemed to consist of golden plovers, their plaintive whistle 

 sounding most melodiously in the still night air, and with these 

 I fancy I detected a few peewits, and now and then the cry of the 

 redshank, or at longer intervals, as if detached from the others, the 

 note of some species of tern. As usual, on such occasions, the flocks 

 seemed to pass backwards and forwards, calling incessantly to keep 

 their numbers together; now apparently just overhead, and so low 

 down that a shot from a fowling-piece must inevitably have done 

 execution amongst them ; now dying away in the distance, only to 

 return again ; and thus throughout the night they kept hovering round, 

 and were heard as noisy as ever both before and after the storm. So 

 great was the uproar occasioned by their unusual numbers that many 

 persons were awakened by them, and this strange evidence of noc- 

 turnal migration became a general topic of conversation for some days. 

 All kinds of stories were, of coursej in circulation as to the species 



