PAT.LAS S SAND GROUSE IN NORFOLK. 445 



It will thus be seen how impossible it is, with such 

 restless birds, to form anything like an accurate estimate as to 

 their numbers; doubtless the same detached parties have 

 again and again been seen and reported by different observers, 

 and the main bodies have varied considerably in numbers 

 at different periods. I think therefore that it would be well 

 to mention in detail only what may be regarded as the main 

 packs, and this I will do, beginning on tbe western side of 

 the county at King's Lynn, and following the coast-line round 

 to Great Yarmouth, returning along the inland boundary of the 

 county westward by Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the starting- 

 point at Lynn, referring to the flocks frequenting the more 

 central localities as I proceed. I adopt this method rather than 

 a chronological arrangement, as it appears to me to convey a 

 better idea of their dispersal over the county than would a mere 

 enumeration of occurrences and dates. 



The country round Castle Acre and Swaffham seems to have 

 been the head-quarters of a considerable flock. Mr. Leeds 

 noticed them at Castle Acre on June 15th, and many times sub- 

 sequently; at Swaffham sixty were seen so late as 1st October, 

 and several other flocks of like numbers are said to frequent the 

 same neighbourhood still ; at Lexham eleven were seen on the 

 31st May, and Mr. Harrison also observed small flocks on three 

 different occasions in the same neighbourhood. Twenty-eight 

 from time to time frequented Mr. Calthrop's farm at Weasenham, 

 and others were seen at Gayton Thorpe. Possibly all these 

 belonged to the Castle Acre flock. A flock, estimated at seventy, 

 was seen at Hillington on the 21st September. On the 9th July, 

 Mr. E. J. Silcock tells me he saw between forty and fifty at 

 Snettisham ; and about the middle of June, writes the Eev. J. G. 

 Tuck, twenty-three were seen near the railway-station at Hun- 

 stanton and others at Holme-next-the-Sea. In the neighbourhood 

 of Shernbourne they appeared early ; a male bird was taken alive 

 there on 26th May, and is still thriving in the possession of 

 Mr. Sandford Parsons, of Shernbourne Hall, by whom a female 

 bird was received on September 24th, which lived till October 

 10th. At Docking they were observed as early as the 14th May; 

 and on the 20th June twenty were seen at Burnham. Passing 

 on to Wells and its neighbourhood, where large numbers have 

 been seen, Mr. Napier informs me that the salt-marshes there 



