The Zoologist— March, 1871. 2499 



Bittern— One was killed near Holt early in the month, and 

 another at Stalhara on the 29th, 



Roughlegyed Buzzard.— A fine young bird was shot near North 

 Walshara on the 17tl). 



Smeiv.—Xxi old female was shot on the 30th. 



Goosander. — A fine female, with rich salmon tint on the breast, 

 was shot on the 23rd. 



Haujfinch.— One shot at Carlton, near Norwich, on the 22nd. 



Green Sandpipers.— Three were shot in various localities during 

 the intense frost between the 24th and 30th. 



Redthroated Diver.— An immature bird was shot on the 10th, 

 and an adult bird, with much red on the throat, on the 29th. 



Longtailed Duck--A fine adult male was shot in Ljun Estuary 

 on the 11th. 



Henry Stevenson. 



On the Abundance of Little Gulls on the Norfolk Coast in the 

 Winter of 1869-70. By Henry Stevenson, Esq., F.L.S. 



(Read before the Norwich Naturalists' Society, January, 1871.) 



It is rarely a year passes that is not at one period or other 

 remarkable for some ornithological occurrence of special interest 

 — either the advent of a new or an extraordinary excess in the 

 number of some other species commonly looked upon as a rare or 

 uncertain visitant. Thus, of late years, we have had an invasion 

 of sand-grouse, a plethora of waxwings, shore larks and storm 

 petrels; during the present autumn a surfeit of quails; and in the 

 winter of 1869-70, such an influx of little gulls as had probably 

 never been known up to that date. Judging from former records 

 of specimens obtained, this small and very elegant species has 

 been observed occasionally on our coast, the stragglers procured, 

 from time to time being, almost invariably, young birds ; but sup- 

 posing that even a few— mingling with the large flocks of common 

 and blackheaded gulls which in autumn and winter frequent our 

 shoals, sandbars, and tidal estuaries— may have annually visited 

 us, still their appearance in February, 1870, both here and in more 

 northern counties, in such extraordinary numbers, is a fact worthy 

 of special record. 



