OCCASIONAL NOTES. 107 
they might not have been Short-eared Owls, which notoriously do sometimes 
appear in packs; but my informant, who is an excellent ornithologist, 
assured me that there was no room for doubt as to the species, the 
sportsmen in question being both practical field naturalists, and their 
information perfectly reliable. This statement completely satisfied me; and 
now Mr. Gatcombe’s account of a similar flight in Devonshire corroborates 
the statement, and shows that the arrival of a considerable body of Long- 
eared Owls is not peculiar to either county—ALFRED CHarLes SMITH 
(Yatesbury Rectory, Calne). [Mr. W. Oxenden Hammond, of St. Alban’s 
Court, near Wingham, Kent, has favoured us with a note of a similar 
occurrence on his own property last autumn.—Ep.] 
WacTalLs GREGARIOUS AT Roostine TIME (Zoologist, 1878, p. 390).— 
There is a large reed-bed in the river here, almost close to the highway. 
where in the autumn—and notably during the month of October last— 
hundreds of small birds of the Swallow and Wagtail class chatter and roost ; 
in fact, just before dark they flock in from all quarters, and it seems almost 
incredible that so many inhabit the neighbourhood, and yet are so seldom 
seen at any other but roosting time. Sometimes of an evening I have seen 
such numbers of Wagtails—not all the same species—flitting and chirping 
over this much-loved resort, that the very reeds seemed alive with them, 
and yet in a great measure each species had its own particular mode 
of procedure. One evening, especially, I noticed a number of Pied 
Wagtails settle upon a fence in a field adjoining the river; and, what 
is remarkable, each bird was perched about a yard from its fellow, 
watching the insects which danced over the stream before them, and 
occasionally darting out and catching one of them, but as often returning 
to the fence. Whilst thus engaged numbers of the other species—Grey 
Wagtails possibly—were restlessly flying about over the reeds, settling here 
and there, keeping up an incessant chirping, and looking at a distance 
almost like some light-coloured moths flitting and dancing up and down 
above the reeds, for the white feathers of the tail were very conspicuous.— 
G. B. Corsin (Ringwood, Hants). 
Witprowt at Larne, Co. Antrim.—During the month of December 
last the Wildfowl were so starved with hunger that, instead of remaining 
in their usual haunts, they resorted to the sea-beach for food. Golden 
Plover, Snipe, and even Woodcock were plentifully shot there. Large 
flocks of Wild Geese and Swans passed over Glenarm much exhausted. 
One Swan dropped from the flock in Glenarm Park, and was shot next day ; 
it proved to be a young Bewick’s Swan. Gulls of various species were very 
common along the shore. Amongst them I observed four Iceland Gulls; 
one of these was shot in December in immature plumage. The spring of 
last year was so wet and cold that a great number of eggs were destroyed, 
