notes from norfolk. 367 



February. 



Glaucous Gull. — An immature female of this species was 

 killed at Yarmouth, on the 8th. 



Grey Crows. — These pests to the game preservers, both here 

 and in Scotland, are, according to Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., rendering 

 themselves additionally objectionable by devouring the barley 

 thrown down for Pheasants. He has himself driven them off the 

 grain at one or two feeding spots at Northrepps, and the keeper 

 at Hempstead killed six, at one shot, that he had watched this 

 month committing similar depredations. 



"White -fronted Goose. — About the middle of the month 

 another bird of this species was sent up to Norwich, killed on 

 Breydon. 



Bewick's Swan. — Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., recorded in ' The 

 Zoologist' for 1880 (p. 139) the capture of two specimens at 

 Hempstead on the 18th. These birds had frequented one of the 

 ponds for some days, and were supposed by the keeper to be tame 

 Swans escaped from other preserved waters. On this occasion, 

 however, their musical notes attracted Mr. Gurney's attention, and 

 on approaching them, they rose slowly on the wing from the 

 shallow water where they had been standing. Owing to the closely 

 surrounding timber one in its flight struck its head against a tree 

 and fell, and on being run down and secured, was found to have 

 destroyed one eye ; the other bird was lost sight of for a time, but 

 later on was found and shot on an adjoining pond. They proved 

 to be male and female, and weighed exactly the same, only 9f fibs., 

 though fully adult in plumage. The disposition of colour, on the 

 bill, also marked maturity, and a sexual distinction was remarked 

 in that feature. " In the female the yellow did not extend over 

 the ridge of the upper mandible, which ridge was black, slightly 

 mottled with yellow ; the same part in the cock bird being entirely 

 yellow." In the gizzard of the latter, besides small stones, "silt," 

 and pond-grass, were found legs of water insects and the tail of a 

 small fish. They measured 5 ft. 10 in. from tip to tip of wing. 

 Of four Bewick's Swans that appeared on Breydon about the 14th 

 of February, three, as I was informed, were shot, and Mr. Gurney 

 heard of one killed about the same time near Saxmundham, in 

 Suffolk. On the 28th I also purchased, in the flesh, an adult male, 

 one of four that made their appearance on Rockland Broad a few 



