NOTES FROM NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK. 3 



Sparrowhawk. — On August 17th last a live female Sparrow- 

 hawk was brought me by a groom. It had been attracted by the 

 light from a stable window, and, dashing against the glass, 

 stunned itself, and became an easy capture. After a short time 

 it regained consciousness, apparently none the worse for its 

 mishap, except the loss of its liberty. I forwarded it to the 

 Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, where I hope it is doing well. 



Buzzards. — The autumn of 1881, in the Eastern Counties, 

 especially with regard to Norfolk and Suffolk, may be said to 

 have been a remarkable season for raptorial migrants, princi- 

 pally of the larger species. Representatives of no less than 

 seven distinct species passed through my hands during the 

 course of a few weeks. Three of these I have already mentioned. 

 Examples of all three species of Buzzards came to hand, the 

 Common and Honey Buzzards most numerous, at least so far as 

 my experience goes. The first Common Buzzard was sent me 

 on September 27th. On unpacking the bird I found its plumage 

 saturated with water, it having been shot whilst flying over 

 Oulton Broad, and fell with a broken wing. It was quite fat and 

 plump, and, on dissecting it, I was surprised at the extraordinary 

 variety of its food, it having apparently stumbled across quite a 

 larder of good things, which it seemed to have devoured indis- 

 criminately ; the crop contained, first, a female dung-beetle, 

 quite entire, the remains of another, the full-grown larva of a 

 privet hawk-moth {Siihinx ligustri) swallowed in three pieces ; a 

 small toad in an entire state, a larger toad, and a frog in parts ; 

 besides a putrid mass of frog and toad bones, beetles, and a 

 small larva, apparently not at all affected by the gastric 

 juice, and showing, I i^resume, that it had been the last thing 

 swallowed. The gullet also was filled with frog and toad remains ; 

 in fact, the bird seemed completely gorged with food. During 

 over twenty years experience I have never before met with an 

 instance of such variation in the food of this species. I have 

 skinned and dissected a large number of Common Buzzards, 

 and have found that their prey almost invariably consisted of 

 the brown rat and common rabbit. The bird in question was a 

 female in immature plumage. On the following day (the 28th) 

 another immature bird, also a female, was killed at Mautby, the 

 stomach of which contained the remains of a common brown rat 

 and a large earthworm. 



