51 
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK & SUFFOLK. 
By T. E. Gunn, F.L.S. 
Tue following notes, made during the past year, are offered 
in continuation of those published in ‘The Zoologist’ for 
January, 1884 :— 
PEREGRINE.—A female in the second year’s plumage was shot 
by a gamekeeper near Harleston on January 12th, 1884. The 
bird weighed two pounds six ounces. On dissection I found it 
very fat, the crop and stomach being filled with the remains of a 
Wood Pigeon, the weight of food in its crop being three ounces 
and a half. 
Meru. — An immature male was shot at Catton, near 
Norwich, on October 11th, 1883. Females in this plumage, as 
also in the adult state, are more frequently met with than males. 
SpaRRowHAwK. — On June 28th, 1884, I took a nest of young 
Sparrowhawks containing six young birds, which is rather an 
unusual number for one nest (four or five being the ordinary 
complement). I also secured the parent birds. I had visited 
the nest on June 15th, and found the eggs cracked round the 
larger end; the young were doubtless hatched the following day. 
Thus the nestlings when taken would be just twelve days old, at 
least the larger birds would. These were more forward in 
plumage than the smaller ones, and proved on dissection to be 
of the female sex, the smaller birds being males; the proportion 
of the sexes being four of the former to two of the latter. I have 
invariably noticed in nests of the Raptores (both hawks and 
owls) not only that the females are in greater preponderance, 
but they are apparently hatched first. These nestling females 
showed their new feathers partly issuing from the soft quills of 
wing and tail, the feathers in the males being less developed in 
one and scarcely started in the other. The parent birds, I was 
somewhat surprised to find, were breeding in their immature 
plumage, being but twelve months old when they paired; this, 
T imagine, is unusual. A few dark slate-coloured feathers here 
and there had just made their appearance in the back and upper 
parts of the plumage of each, also two new short centre feathers 
in the tail of the male; the rest of the feathers exhibited the 
usual margins indicative of immaturity. The cere, legs, and 
