Birds. 9807 



them ; but they appeared to be a straggling flight of Brent geese, 

 accompanied, however, by birds of smaller size. This I gathered 

 from the different notes they uttered. The majority were unquestion- 

 ably geese of some kind or other, and their attendants were, I think, 

 of the plover species. A friend of mine who heard them fancied he 

 could detect the note of an owl among the rest." 



August 27. A small flock of turnstones seen at Blakeney already ; 

 a young bird of the year was shown me to-day. 



September 3. I never remember to have seen any notice of the par- 

 tiality shown by our common hedgesparrow for our turnip-fields in the 

 early part of the autumn. I have frequently noticed, whilst partridge- 

 shooting, the number of these little creatures that rise singly here and 

 there amongst the swedes or " whites," flying a short distance only to 

 settle again, or shuffling along between the ridges, more like mice than 

 birds. They are not confined, also at these times, to the vicinity of 

 the hedges, but are scattered generally over the fields, finding probably 

 some favourite grub or insect on the leaves or roots of the turnip. 



September 12. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., informs me that a pigmy 

 curlew was killed at Blakeney on the above date, and on the same day 

 he observed a flock of turnstones and a skua gull. The pigmy curlew 

 is not unfrequently met with in that locality, but occurs for the most 

 part singly, or associating with a flock of dunlins. In the 'Field' of 

 the 16th of September, Mr. F. Hele, of Aldborough, Suff'olk, states that 

 no less than fifteen of these rare sandpipers had been killed at Thorpe 

 and other neighbouring localities, in August and the beginning of 

 September, with three or four little stints and two Temminck's 

 stints. 



September 13. Some five or six couples of barlailed godwits were 

 exposed for sale in our fish-market, in every state of change from 

 summer to winter dress, one, however, still retaining its full breeding 

 plumage. 



September 16. The present season would appear to be somewhat 

 prolific in rare Tringae, as a fine specimen of the pectoral sandpiper 

 was killed on the above date, at Caistor, near Yarmouth, and was sent, 

 in the flesh, to a Norwich bird-stufier for preservation. Unfortunately 

 a shot had rendered the sex undistinguishable by dissection, but the 

 bird is somewhat smaller than some I have seen, and has still much 

 trace of the summer plumage on the head and back. This is the third 

 example known to have occurred in Norfolk. The first, a female (as 

 also the first known British specimen), was shot on Breydon muds on 

 the 17lh of October, 1830, and came into the possession of the late 



