174 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
wind,—and these winds prevail very much in the autumn,—but 
that they should continue to go west when the wind had changed 
to the south, as it did on the 22nd, was a new thing; for Gulls 
almost invariably fly against the wind, but it is true the wind was 
moderate. If there had been much I am sure they must have 
flown against it. By far the largest migration of Gulls we had 
last year at Cromer was on October 11th. There had been a 
gale in the night from N.N.W., and at 11 a.m. not a Gull was to 
be seen. Exactly when the ‘“ passage” began I do not know, 
but it must have been soon after this. I did not go down to the 
shore again until 3 p.m., when the wind was still west, but 
greatly moderated; numbers of Gulls were then passing Cromer. 
How long they eontinued passing I am unable to say, as I could 
not stay and watch it out, but if they continued passing six 
hours, which I am sure is a low computation, 10,800 Gulls must 
have passed,—a number which the sea-board of Norfolk could 
not supply,—chiefly young Herring Gulls and Lesser Black- 
backs, with some Common Gulls, and a few adults of the Greater 
Black-backed, and now and then, though much more rarely, a 
Black-headed Gull. This is reckoning that three flocks passed 
every two minutes, varying from fifteen to thirty in each flock. 
Every bird was going in the same direction, viz., following our 
coast-line, which is W.N.W. On the 12th, the next day, I had 
the curiosity to go down to the shore at 8 a.m., and again at 
4p.m.; the wind was in much the same quarter,—N.W., and 
strong,—but not a Gull was to be seen. 
Woopcocx.—On the same day that the Gulls were passing 
Cromer, a gunner at Blakeney, a very intelligent man named 
Brett, on whose word I can depend, picked up four drowned 
Woodcocks, and saw also a number of Grey Crows, Larks, and 
Thrushes washed up by the sea, and met another man named 
Striker, who had six more Woodcocks, all picked up. They also 
saw two which had reached land alive. This shows that Grey 
Crows, which are by some people supposed to be exclusively day 
migrants, migrate also at night. It also shows that Woodcocks 
do not wait for an easterly wind, as many gamekeepers will tell 
you, and many an old sportsman, too, but generally cross the 
North Sea with a westerly one. In 1883 I had three or four from 
lighthouses, which were killed during westerly or north-westerly 
winds. In 1884 a flight was distinctly noted at Cromer, in the 
