370 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Heron nesting at Hempstead. — Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 

 records in ' The Zoologist ' for this year (p. 360) the fact of a single 

 pair of Herons having nested for the first time at Hempstead, near 

 Holt. The nest was discovered in a medium- sized Scotch fir, in 

 the heart of a considerable plantation of similar trees. Attention 

 was drawn to the nest from one of the old birds being, un- 

 fortunately, found dead at the foot of the tree, with broken egg- 

 shells. The young were not seen. 



Norfolk Plover. — I was glad to hear that this species was 

 in some numbers about Thetford this summer (1880), and that 

 several nests were found on the 10th of May, both on the heath 

 and the cultivated lands adjoining. 



Bee-eater. — The Rev. Kirby Trimmer, of Norwich, was 

 informed by his brother, who resides at Billingford, near North 

 Elmham, that, on the morning of the 19th of May, he saw an 

 undoubted specimen of Meropa apiaster alight, apparently in an 

 exhausted state, on some iron railings in his garden. After resting 

 for some little time, it flew to a shrub that was in flower, passing 

 from blossom to blossom, as if seeking for insects, and then took 

 wing, flying off in an easterly direction, and was not seen again. 

 I know of no occurrence of this species in Norfolk since June, 

 1854 ; but it is worth notice, in connection with the above occur- 

 rence, that in ' The Field' of July 3rd, 1880, a male Bee-eater is 

 said to have been taken at Beverley, East Yorkshire, on the 5th of 

 June, and that, on the 10th of August, another was shot at Tetney 

 Lock, near Grimsby, Lincolnshire, as recorded in the same journal 

 for September 11th, 1880. 



Cormorant. — From Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., I learn that no 

 less than three of these former residents in Norfolk appeared on 

 the Broads, in the neighbourhood of Yarmouth, about the middle 

 of this month. 



Snow Bunting. — In ' The Zoologist' for 1880 (p. 301) is a 

 notice of a single bird of this species having been seen on Cromer 

 beach as late as the 10th of May, flying about, at the time, in 

 company with a common Sparrow. 



June and July. 

 Spoonbill. — Three of these conspicuous, and of course perse- 

 cuted, birds were seen on Breydon about the 12th of last month, 

 and one appeared as late as the first- week in July. All these, 



