3714 The Zoologist — October, 1873. 



an entrance only between the bolloin of the door and the water. 

 The nest, as usual, built of clay and lined with feathers, had a large 

 mass of grass-stems hanging over the front, making it look like a 

 sparrow's winter haunt. The eggs were hard set upon. 



Swift. — Unusually numerous this summer in and around Nor- 

 wich : I never remember to have seen so many in this neighbour- 

 hood as during the intensely hot weather that jirevailed in the 

 middle of this month, which these birds seemed to revel in, in the 

 hottest hours of the day. 



While Starling. — A pure white starling was shown me by a 

 birdcatcher, which he had netted with others in the course of this 

 month. 



Carnivorous Taste in a Rook. — That rooks destroy the eggs of 

 game, particularly in dry seasons, there is no question, and their 

 very near relationship to the carrion crow is as strongly marked, at 

 times, by carnivorous propensities. Mr. Gurncy has informed me 

 of the following case in point, which occurred on the 7th of this 

 month at Northrepps. The head keeper, when visiting his coops 

 in the middle of the da}', to feed the young pheasants, observed a 

 rook rise from one of the coops, but paid no attention to the 

 circumstance at the time. On returning with a supply of water in 

 about half an hour he found a young pheasant, quite dead but 

 warm, on the spot where the rook had been, and having set a trap, 

 baited with a portion of the bird, in less than an hour he found a 

 rook dead in the trap. Mr. Gurney examined this bird, which was 

 a young one of this season, in good condition, and in its stomach 

 found portions of the young pheasant. How the latter was killed it 

 is difficult to say, as it was a fine three-quarter grown bird, healthy 

 and strong. 



Green Sandpiper. — Mr. Gnruey informs me that owing to the 

 decoy-pond at Hempstea^^l, near Holt, having been cleared out 

 recently, and the mud thrown on to the banks, this species has 

 been attracted to the spot in unusual numbers. A iew had been 

 seen there by the keeper early in the month, but on the evening of 

 the 24th no less than ten were seen by Mr. Gurney himself, which 

 rose wildly, some singly, others in twos and threes ; but they soon 

 returned to the same locality from whence they had been flushed. 

 Mr. Lubbock, in his 'Fauna of Norfolk,' records a similar abundance 

 of this species, many years back, at Norton, in Suffolk, where a 

 range of meadow-drains had been "fyed" out in like manner, 



