
' 
NOTES FROM NORFOLK. 17 
This falls very short of the total which was reached in the 
season of 1884-5, an exceptionally good winter, when 2056 fowl 
were captured. In Colonel Butler’s decoy on the south-west side 
of the lake, where no decoy-dog is used, sixty-one Ducks and 
Mallards, and two Wigeons, were taken. The decoy-men consider 
that the Wigeon remained later than usual last spring, or rather 
uppeared on passage later. Although we only observed one, 
Col. Butler saw a hundred on April 9th within gun-shot of the 
bank. On April 19th a Water Rail, Rallus aquaticus, was picked 
up on the shore at Overstrand, and a Buzzard was seen at North- 
repps. On the 23rd a Black Stork, Ciconia nigra, retaining a few 
immature feathers on the breast, but otherwise adult, was 
obtained at Salthouse. On the 24th two White Wagtails, 
Motacilla alba, were shot at Yarmouth, as already recorded 
(Zool. 1888, p. 229), the first authenticated examples killed in 
Norfolk. 
In May the prevailing direction of the wind was W. and N. 
On the Ist an adult male White Wagtail was brought to Mr. 
Pycraft from the River Bure, near Yarmouth, the light grey colour 
extending over the whole of the back to the root of the tail. On 
the 9th a Dotterel, Hudromias morinellus, was picked up under 
the telegraph-wires at Northrepps, and taken to my father, with 
whom it became wonderfully tame, eating worms greedily, but 
lived only ten days after capture. On the 16th a Greenshank, 
Yotanus gloltts, was picked up dead at Scoulton, thirty miles 
from the sea. On the 20th an adult male Honey Buzzard, Pernis 
apivorus, was brought to my father from Thorpe Market, probably 
the same bird which had been seen by the keeper at Northrepps 
the day before. Grey-cheeked adult birds of this species are not 
common. Qn the 29th a female Montagu’s Harrier, Circus cine- 
vaceus, was shot on Kelling Heath, and three days afterwards the 
male was massacred: they probably had a nest, for when Mr. Pashley 
skinned the hen bird he found an egg, full size, ready for exclusion. 
A few days afterwards another female of this species was brought 
~ into Norwich, as I learn from Mr. Southwell; this bird also con- 
tained an egg with the shell formed. These Harriers would nest 
regularly in many places if permitted. A pair bred at or near Ran- 
_ worth, and the young in this case were reared, with one exception. 
On the 29th a female Crane was shot at Halvergate, near Yarmouth, 
and mounted by Mr. Pyeraft, who found that it turned the scale 
ZOOLOGIST.—JAN. 1889. Cc 
