260 The Zoologist— June, 1866. 



Wagtail; 19. Lesser Whitethioat ; 25. Whinchat ; 29. Nest of young 



thrashes flown. 



John Cordeaux. 



Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 

 ^piil 30, 1866. 



Oniitholoyical Notes from Norfolk. By Henry Stevenson, Esq. 



(Continued frmu S. S. 87.) 



January to March, 1866. 



The extreme mildness of the past winter accounts for the scarcity 

 of fowl at iiny lime on our coast, or of the rarer specimens which, in 

 sharp weather, are not unfrcquently met with, l^ven the frost and 

 .snow which occurred at intervals during January and February were 

 of too short duration to have any material influence, although the 

 cold was severe whilst it lasted, and the gunners on Breydon as well 

 as on the flat shores of the Wash, concur with the keepers of the few 

 decoys still worked in this district, as to the blank nature of the past 

 season. The only particular feature, perhaps, worthy of note, has been 

 the appearance in some numbers, both in Norfolk and Suffolk, of 

 rougideggcd and common buzzards, with a few fine peregrines. 



Lonylailed Duck. — An immature female was sent me from Salt- 

 house, on the 6lh of January, which confirms my previous experience 

 that tiiese birds occur at limes in niild winters when least expected, and 

 are often altogether absent in the hardest weather. 



Quail. — An adult female was taken at Salthouse on the 6th of 

 January, and about the same time a singularly small and dark variety 

 on Mousehold Heath, near Norwich. This curious-looking bird pre- 

 sented the same peculiarities as are said to distinguish the small dark 

 varieties of the common partridge occasionally met with'iu heathery 

 districts. The whole of the ground colour of the plumage, commonly 

 of a pale brownish yellow, were in this bird sooty gray, particularly 

 noticeable on the chin and throat; the usual light streaks also per- 

 vading the feathers of the back and sides, fbru)ing two parallel lines 

 on either side of the shafts, were iu this instance dark gray, with the 

 shafts of each feather pure white. 



Bldcktailed Godtoit. — A single specimen shot on Breydon, on the 

 10th of January. 



Common Bittern. — Two fine specimens exhibited in our fish-market, 

 one on the lOih ol February and another on the 2nd of March. 



