The Zoologist— May, 1807. 707 



higher authority could possibly be adduced for considering the twenty 

 names I have cited as representing twenty species, but it is not so, for 

 the seemingly overwhelming weight of authority is crushed by the 

 inexorable logic of facts. 



Believe me, with every sentiment of respect and esteem, to re- 

 main, 



Dear Mr. Wollaston, 



Faithfully yours, 



Edward Newman. 



Peckhain, Octuber 1, 1806. 



Ornithological Notes from. Norfolk, for December, 1866, and January 

 and February, 1867. By Henry Stevenson, Esq. 



(Continued from S. S. 548). 



In spite of the extreme severity of the winter there has been an 

 extraordinary dearth of ornithological rarities, and at no time have our 

 markets exhibited either the quantity or variety of wildfowl not nnfre- 

 quently met with in far milder seasons. In my last notes (S. S. 595) 

 I alluded to the large number of fowl which passed to the southward 

 m advance of the first snow-storm on the 19th of November, and the 

 same fact was observed at Yarmouth just previous to the very severe 

 weather that commenced on the 1st of January, and, with a short 

 interval between the 5th and 11th, continued up to the evening of the 

 22ud. The gunners on Breydon did little or nothing, and the shallow 

 waters of the Broads being frozen up presented no attractions for 

 either fowl or waders. As usual, however, in such seasons our resident 

 species suffered greatly, not only from the cold and scarcity of food, 

 but from the incessant persecution of idle hedge-poppers. Large 

 bunches of thrushes, blackbirds and starlings at the poulterers' shops, 

 made one grieve for the loss of so many merry songsters, these being 

 for the most part home-bred birds, the regular migratory flights having 

 passed on to the south long before. Kingfishers of course, deprived 

 by the intense frosts of their ordinary means of subsistence, fell easy 

 victims, in their enfeebled state, to the rage for "plumes," and in 

 Norwich alone over thirty specimens were brought in to our birdstuffers 

 for preservation. I have seen also nearly twenty green woodpeckers, 

 all shot within the same period, but in neither case have I any reason 

 to believe, in this instance, that the number killed has anything to do 



