824 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
occasions) with Stock Doves. Such occurrences, especially in 
autumn and winter, should be carefully noted, with particulars as 
to locality where met with, and under what circumstances, as 
well as the state of the weather, and direction of the wind at 
the time. 
The marvellous change in the weather, after so mild a winter, 
which extended from the 6th to the 10th of March, when gales, 
most disastrous on the coast from north and north-east, were 
accompanied, day after day, with heavy storms of snow and sleet 
till, on the 10th, the snow laid five or six inches deep on my 
grass plot, and icicles hung from the windows at mid-day, after 
severe frost at night—it was a curious sight to see my ‘‘ Charity 
Board,” thronged with feathered pensioners as in the sharpest 
winter. Tits, Chaflfinches, Robins, and Hedgesparrows, with 
Thrushes, Blackbirds, and Starlings, all appeared, yet the latter, 
pinched as they were for food from this sudden deprivation of 
their diet, despite all cold and privation, sang merrily in the 
intervals of sunshine, and paid in melody for their ‘‘ out-door 
relief.” Yet, strange to say, by the evening of the 10th, the large 
amount of snow so gradually accumulated, had, to a great extent, 
disappeared through a rapid ground thaw, without rain and the 
temperature still very low. Another young Shag, but in its 
second year’s plumage, now in my collection, was shot on the Ist 
of this month, on Yarmouth beach. A curious clustering of 
Wrens was observed at Northrepps about 5 p.m. on the 9th, when 
some six or eight, or more, were seen fluttering against the 
kitchen window of the keeper’s cottage, situated amongst the 
plantations, and not far from the sea, and may have been a small 
migratory flock; they flew off into a laurel-bush, but disappeared 
later. A red-plumaged male Crossbill was shot in a plantation 
at Mousehold, near Norwich, on the 5th. Like the Shag before 
recorded, at Attleborough, a young Cormorant, green only on the 
back, was shot off the tower of Necton Church, far inland, on 
the 8th. The bird fell wounded, and severely scratched a man 
who seized it on the ground. Hundreds of the smaller T’ringe 
appeared on Breydon in the first week of March, with some 
Ringed Plover, and during the severe weather a week later, more 
of these birds were seen than in all the winter months. Several 
Golden Plover, at this time, were well forward in summer 
plumage. Ruffs and Reeves appeared at Potter Heigham in 
