The Zoologist — October, 1866. 441 



Ornilholoyical Notes from Norfolk in May, June and July. 



By Henry Stevenson, Esq. 



(Continued from S. S. 264.) 



Miyraiory Warblers. — Owing probably to the prevalence of N.E. 

 winds at the time, bartailed godwits were unusually plentiful on 

 Breydon this spring, between the 7lh and 21st of May, and a large 

 number were killed in every state of change. Having had the oppor- 

 tunity of examining and dissecting a large series of specimens, I may 

 say that I found the small richly coloured birds invariably males, the 

 larger and less even coloured ones females. In one or two instances 

 I found the beaks in the males nearly as long as those of the 

 females, but all the other measurements invariably less. Some of the 

 earliest killed males (probably old birds) had attained as rich a summer 

 plumage as others killed a fortnight later, but the latest females were 

 rather buff than red, as compared with their mates, and earlier ones 

 had the full gray tints of the winter dress. Very few knots appeared 

 this season, but on the 19th of May a variety of different species ap- 

 peared both on Breydon " flats " and on the beach at Yarmouth : 

 these included a pair of land dotterel, a female spotted redshank, three 

 reeves, several black terns, gray plovers in full summer plumage, turn- 

 stones and sanderlings. 



A blackwinged stilt [Himantopusmelanopterus) is also said to have 

 been seen on the beach, and followed by a gunner as far as Caister, 

 but without success, as the artillery practising with the big guns dis- 

 turbed all the birds which appeared at that time. 



Mr. F. Harmer, of Yarmouth, shot a pigmy curlew, in summer 

 plumage, on Breydon, on the 27th of April, in company with three 

 dunlins, and two gray plovers in half change. Four reeve's eggs, laid 

 on Hickling Broads, were shown me on the 19th of May, and I have 

 since learned that two or three pairs remained to nest in the same 

 locality — their last stronghold in this county. 



Marsh Harrier. — Two or three of these birds which, if permitted to 

 live, would still breed constantly in our " Broad district," were killed 

 during May at Hickling, one pair being no sooner destroyed than 

 another took their place,— migrants evidently searching for suitable 

 nesting-places. 



Spoiled Crake. — I have known of two nests of this species taken at 

 Hickling during the past summer. 



Pied Flycatcher.— A pair shot at Salthouse, near the sea, early in 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. I. 3 L 



