4536 THE ZooLoGistT—JULY, 1875. 
cormorant and gull.—William Pike; Glendarary, Achill Sound, Westport, 
June 10, 1875. ' 
Foresight of Birds\—The foresight of birds of a coming epidemic of 
cholera has been occupying the attention of a German journal, the ‘ Jardin 
Zoologique.’ The journal notes that a few days previous to the terrible 
ravages of cholera in Gallicia in 1872, all the sparrows suddenly quitted the 
town of Przemysl, and not a single bird returned until the end of November, 
when the disease had entirely disappeared. The same circumstance was 
remarked in Munich and in Nuremberg. During the attacks of cholera at 
St. Petersburg and Riga in 1848, in Western Prussia in 1849, and in 
Hanover in 1850, every swallow and sparrow forsook the town and remained 
absent until the eradication of the scourge. Might not such a coincidence 
serve as a warning and give time for measures to be taken against the 
disease ? Sanitary Boards should take note of this.—‘ Graphic,’ August 29, 
1874, 
Notes from Aldeburgh, Suffolk.—I was at Aldeburgh on Thursday and 
Friday, the 13th and 14th of May, and as usual looked carefully to see 
what birds were about. The terns, which usually breed on the shingle by 
the lighthouses are there this year in considerable numbers, and I was 
pleased to see an unusual quantity of the lesser tern. From being com- 
paratively unmolested, they were very tame, sometimes coming within ten 
or fifteen yards. Early on Friday morning I took a walk round the meres, 
armed with a good telescope: there were a lot of gulls of various species, 
chiefly in immature dress, with one or two specimens of the blackheaded 
gull in full plumage among them. It was rather too early for the spring 
waders, and the only one I saw was a very beautiful gray plover in perfect 
summer dress. Coots were breeding in the further mere in abundance; 
I counted between twenty and thirty swimming about. I also saw a 
beautiful pair of pintails, which I was enabled to watch carefully through 
my glass: their long thin neck and slender form give them a very pretty 
appearance in the water: I do not suppose they ever breed so far south. 
But the most distinguished visitor by whose presence Aldeburgh has been 
favoured this year was a white stork: he has been seen on several occasions 
by persons quite qualified to recognise the species. Unluckily I was unable 
to reply in the affirmative to the question of the day, “‘ Have you seen the 
stork?” He was approached one day by some boys, whose curiosity 
probably saved his life, for on their going to report to a friend of mine—an 
enthusiastic naturalist—of the wonderful bird they had seen, they were 
obliged to admit that they had put him up. I have not seen an account of 
the capture of a white stork in any obituary of rare birds, so I should say 
that by this time he has safely returned to his “ own fireside,” or rather 
his own chimney top, in Holland. Eggs either of the garganey or teal have 
been taken this year: that the former species does breed in East Suffolk 
7 ae y 
