Tue ZooLocist—DeceMBER, 1872. 3323 
We saw immense flocks of waders, as knot and dunlin, also gulls, 
curlew and gray plover. On the “fitties” were numerous redshank— 
indeed I do not recollect at any time having seen so many in one 
day: they rose from the creeks in small parties from five or six to 
twenty together. Once I came suddenly on about fifteen feeding 
in a shallow creek or basin sheltered from observation by tall plants 
and sea-grass. It was worth seeing when the affrighted birds rose 
in a lump, and, with shrill screams and pipings, squandered right 
and left, trailing their light red legs and exhibiting a plumage with 
strongly contrasting bars of black and white. I did not let them 
get out of range without securing a very nice clean-shot example. 
My companion killed a shorteared owl which rose close to his feet 
from the “marram.” The knot and gray plover were wild and shy; 
difficult to get at, too, as they kept to the open coast. Late in the 
afternoon, and when the rapidly advancing tide—a tide which 
gallops in like a horse—had swallowed the miles of sand and 
“ fittie,” the birds come from every direction to a sand which for 
the next half-hour would be uncovered. The amount of gulls and 
waders collected at this one spot was enormous: the bank looked 
fairly paved with birds, and it was difficult to believe that those 
dark and white masses were really endowed with life and made up 
of winged creatures. Immense flocks also kept perpetually careering 
aloft round the bank, now black as a crowd of starlings, and then 
instantaneously flashing white. All this, with a glorious sunset, 
a fresh breeze, and a tumbling sea rolling in across this barren 
coast, was worth driving miles to see. 
JOHN CORDEAUX. 
Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 
October 31, 1872. 
Marsh Harrier in Norfolk.—tI received a fine male of this species from 
Hickling on the 12th of October.—T. E. Gunn ; 5, Upper St. Giles’ Street, 
Norwich. 
Great Gray Shrike near Yarmouth.—On the 23rd of October, 1872, an 
immature male of this species was shot at Burgh St. Peter, near Great 
Yarmouth. Its stomach contained the remains of a single beetle —Zd. 
White Variety of Song Thrush.—A pure white variety of the thrush, an 
immature bird, was taken in June last, at Herringfleet, near Lowestoft, 
Suffolk.—Td. 
Varieties of the Blaekbird.—An entirely white specimen was caught at 
Hempnall on the 12th of July: it appeared in a very weak and half-starved 
