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ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK. 
By J. H. Gurney, Jun., F.L.S., F.Z.S8., 
President of the Norwich Naturalists’ Society. 
In sending you a first instalment of Notes for 1888, from 
the county with which the name of Henry Stevenson has been so 
long associated, I cannot refrain from adding my personal tribute 
to his attainments as an ornithologist. He had a genuine love 
of Nature, and as one of the pioneers of the Norwich Naturalists’ 
Society he helped to imbue many residents in this county with a 
taste for Natural History and outdoor observation. The influence 
exerted through his writings, however, was felt far beyond his 
own county, and readers of ‘The Zoologist’ especially will miss 
his periodical contributions to the pages of this widely-read 
Journal. 
In compliance ;with the editorial request for information 
concerning the reported breeding of the Green Sandpiper in 
Norfolk (Zool. 1888, p. 306) I communicated with Mr. W. E. 
Baker, who readily answered all my queries, but nothing more 
was elicited than has already been furnished by Col. Butler, 
and the matter must therefore remain doubtful, since nobody saw 
the nest referred to, and the young Sandpiper which Mr. Baker 
thought was only a few hours old, might have been the young of 
some other species. 
January, prevailing wind W. and KE. Some Wood Pigeons nest 
very late: I have a note of shooting a young one, which still 
retained some of the yellow filaments, as late as December 23rd, 
only about two-thirds grown, and remember seeing another in 
_ November which had just left the nest, and could do no 
more than flutter. Among some Wood Pigeons taken out of 
a net on January 17th last was one in immature plumage. Wood 
Pigeons may be taken with acorns soaked in Cocculus indicus : 
although ranked as a poison, it is used by brewers, and pigeons 
which have been killed with it are none the worse for eating. 
Acorns soaked in spirit have no effect at all, the Wood 
Pigeons eating them with avidity, and evidently without the 
slightest ill effects. The best way of obtaining them is by lying 
in wait for them in the plantations, and shooting them as they 
come into roost: on January 24th forty birds were obtained in 
