4190 The Zoologist — October, 1874. 



grebes are said to have returned to the Broad, and I saw one nest 

 with the eggs hard set upon. The coots did not seem to have 

 nested so early as usual, their eggs, unlike the waterhens', being all 

 fresh laid. Lapwings and snipes were pretty numerous on the 

 surrounding marshes, with several pairs of redshanks. A snipe's 

 nest found in a high grassy tussock had the eggs very hard set. 



Wild Duck's Nest.— The keeper at Hempstead, near Holt, in- 

 formed Mr. Gurney that a brood of young wild ducks were hatched 

 under their own mother on the 7th of April, the earliest date he 

 had known of. 



May. 



Spring Migrants. — May 2nd. Young rooks out, and generally 

 so bv the 9th. 



7th. Goatsucker and turtle dove seen at Northrepps. Young 

 blackbirds on the wing. 



9th. lledbacked shrike seen at Northrepps. 



23rd. Spotted flycatcher seen at Northrepps. 



25th. Swifts seen in Norwich, but not again for several days. 



30th. Swifts plentiful at Cromer, but some are said to have made 

 their appearance there nearly three weeks before and to have dis- 

 appeared again : none were remarked at their usual haunts in 

 Cromer and Soulhrepps church-steeples, either on the 28th or 29lh ; 

 but at Aylsham, near Cromer, they wore observed on the 23rd. 



Peregrine Falcon and Hohhy. — On the 14th a peregrine was 

 seen at Northrepps, and a hobby, apparently a female, on the 13lh. 

 On the 26th a male hobby, a young bird of last year, in change of 

 plumage, was shot at Northrepps, and in its stomach were found 

 remains of beetles and of a small bird. 



Nightingale. — Mr. Gurney was informed, on good authority, this 

 month, that a man who had set a steel trap in his garden at Keswick 

 for rats, without any bait, caught two nightingales in succession, 

 probably attracted by the fresh mould spread over the trap. 



Common Dotterel. — A bird in the immature plumage of last year 

 was shot at Scottow on the 6th. 



Waders on Breydon. — The usual flocks of migratory waders 

 appeared on the Breydon "muds" about the second week in May, 

 and, as a further evidence that the Wild Birds Protection Act is a 

 " dead letter," owing to the absurd alterations made in its penal 

 clauses by the quasi friends of the " little bird," I may state that 



