870 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



whale-line (which is fully double the thickness of the whale-line 

 used in the Greenland fishery) is very carefully coiled down, and 

 lashed in place with spun-yarn, which breaks directly the line 

 gets the least strain on it. The sheet of iron is hinged, and 

 when steaming in rough weather through a head sea the harpoon 

 is removed from the gun and the iron turned up, so as to protect 

 the gun from the seas. 



The cannon has naturally to be very strong, and was in this 

 instance 4^ inches thick at the muzzle. The charge of powder 

 is 16 "lod," and is kept ready measured off in round canvas 

 balls about the size of a cricket-ball. The recoil is taken off by 

 pads of gutta-percha several inches thick at the rear of the 

 trunnions. A pistol-stock shaped handle is fixed to the breech 

 to aim the gun with ; the details, such as percussion-caps, &c., 

 vary, I believe, in the guns of almost every company ; but I have, 

 I think, attempted a description of every important point. 



(To be continued.) 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FKOM NORFOLK. 

 By Henry Stkvenson, F.L.S. 



A BAD season for the shore-gunners means, always, brief 

 notes for the naturalist ; and both before and after Christmas, 

 in the winter of 1881-2, an almost total absence of "hard- 

 weather" fowl, and a singular scarcity of Fieldfares and Red- 

 wings, were readily accounted for by November of 1881 being 

 the mildest and warmest for many years. 



In the first week of January, 1882, I heard of two or three 

 Waxwings, seen or shot, near Holt, and one at Lamas, near 

 Cromer, indicating, as I have before observed, that the advent 

 of this beautiful but irregular migrant is by no means confined 

 to severe winters. 



On the 6th a Common Buzzard appeared at Northrepps, and 

 a large Raptor, seen at the same place on the 30th, was, i)ossibly, 

 a Rough-legged Buzzard, of which species one had been shot at 

 Fulmodestone on the 14th. Of wild-fowl, the only entries I find 

 worth notice during this month are a male Gadwall, at Salthouse, 



