The Zoologist — October, 1874. 4187 



bittern was shot at Catfield in the last week of the month. On the 

 28th hooded crows and rooks were observed near Cromer, apparently 

 commencing to leave and cross the sea. 



March. 

 This month, like its predecessors, commenced with mild weather, 

 till a batch of snow and frost set in from the 9th to the 13th, trying 

 alike to the advanced vegetation of our gardens and shrubberies 

 and the nursery arrangements of the early nesting birds. A hen 

 sparrow, caught for " trap" shooting in the first week of March, had 

 eggs ready for exclusion, and on the 29th I saw a young starling 

 in its first gray plumage, without a single spot to indicate that it 

 might have been a late-hatched one of the previous year. Male 

 chaffinches were in full song at the beginning of the month, at 

 which time the bird-catchers were netting greenfinches and yellow- 

 hammers in large numbers, as well as sparrows, and the barbarity 

 of "trap" shooting throughout the spring and summer months, as 

 practised in this part of the county, is sufficiently evidenced by the 

 statement of a local birdcatcher, that at this time of year he not 

 unfrequently finds the sparrows netted for one day's shooting to be 

 almost all males, feeding together as I have repeatedly observed 

 them in my own garden, whilst the hens are sitting. Can nothing 

 be done to stop this wanton destruction of bird-life at a season 

 when, by supplying their nestlings with insect-food, they are doing 

 the greatest possible amount of good to the farmer and gardener } 

 To include them in the Wild Birds Protection Act, as Mr. Auberon 

 Herbert and his friends have suggested, would be simply a farce, as 

 no one would dream of prosecuting when a reprimand only, with 

 payment of costs, is the penalty for a first offence, and a fine, not 

 exceeding five shillings, including costs, the penalty for subsequent 

 convictions. The roughlegged buzzard shot at Burgh, near Yar- 

 mouth, on the 4th, and the common buzzard at Berghapton on the 

 20th, as recorded by Mr. Gunn (S. S. 4117), and a peregrine falcon 

 seen at Norlhrepps on the 1st, appear to have been the rarest 

 occurrences of the month. 



April. 



Blue Tits. — 1 have watched several of these birds, frequenting the 

 silver birch trees in my garden, busily engaged upon the catkins 

 which, at this time, hang in profusion, performing the most 



