82 l'HE ZOOLOGIST. 



crossing and returning from shore to shore in a very short time 

 if there be very little wind. Mr. Tegetmeier says the speed of a 

 Pigeon, flying under favourable circumstances, is from fifty to 

 sixty miles an hour (' The Field,' August 25th, 1883), and he 

 considers the rate of flight of a wild Kock Dove and a Homing 

 Pigeon to be about the same.* If Pigeons can fly at fifty miles 

 an hour, Curlews, Knots, and Dunlins can fly at forty. From 

 Norfolk to Holland is little over a hundred miles. Given a 

 suitable day, and a head wind or no wind, two and a half hours 

 would suffice to transport a bird from shore to shore. I have 

 often at Blakeney Harbour, on the coast of Norfolk, observed 

 that many (occasionally almost all) of such species as the Dunlin, 

 Knot, Turnstone, Whimbrel, and Curlew disappear at high tide, 

 having been abundant a few hours before when the tide was low, 

 and a search along the shore has failed to reveal any trace of 

 them. The same has been noticed at Breydon, near Yarmouth.! 

 But this is merely a suggestion, for inasmuch as there is a 

 difference of two hours between high tide at King's Lynn and 

 Great Yarmouth, they may merely move from Blakeney to one 

 or other of these places. According to a "time-table" which 

 I have consulted, there is about the same difference between 

 Yarmouth and Heligoland. 



A young Sea Eagle, Haliaehis albicilla, was shot on Nov. 16th 

 at Hoveton, and stuffed by Mr. J. A. Cole, who found it to be a 

 male on dissection. It had been seen in the neighbourhood for 

 a week or more, and was shot in a field by the railway. 



On Sept. J 5th, the keeper of Cromer lighthouse discovered 

 by the light of his lamps, at three o'clock in the morning, an 

 adult Osprey, Pandion haliceetiis, perched on the flagstaff which 

 stands about fifty yards from the lighthouse. His assistant shot 



* This opinion be has doubtless seen reason to modify in consequence of 

 the more recent experiments made by Mr. Griffiths, from which it appeared 

 that the average speed of Partridges and Pigeons is about thirty-seven miles 

 an hour. See ' The Field,' Feb. 19th, 1887.— Ed. 



f It does not follow from the disappearance of the birds from the shore 

 at high tide that they cross to Holland, though possibly some may do so. 

 At Breydon Harbour, as well as on the coasts of Essex, Kent, and Sussex, 

 we have repeatedly at high tide found them in the marshes, or resting in 

 close order on the dry shingle beaches. — Ed. 



