ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK. 335 
that a sketch was made of the sitting bird in the presence of 
four witnesses. The nest was in the midst of a spreading oak 
stub, and was composed entirely of the leaves of this tree with 
a few of the Woodcock’s body-feathers, and measured inside six 
inches across; the eggs all pointed towards one side, and it was 
noticed that the flank-feathers of the bird were much extended 
when she was sitting. 
On May 12th a large flock of Dotterel, Hudromias morinellus, 
appeared on Yarmouth Denes: Mr. G. Smith thinks he saw at 
least a hundred, and some of them were very tame, permitting a 
near approach. About May 13th Ospreys were shot at Weybourne 
and Salthouse, and soon afterwards a large hawk—supposed to 
be another Osprey—was seen at Hempstead. On May 22nd 
Mr. W. E. Baker showed me a Hawfinch’s nest containing four 
eggs; and on further search we discovered, in the same wood, 
another nest of this species containing five eggs, besides two 
unfinished nests and one of last year. It was gratifying to find 
these rare birds so plentiful, and we left all the eggs untouched, 
to the gratification of the old Hawfinches, who were too shy to 
do more than peer at us from a distance. One of the nests was 
in a whitethorn, one in an elder, and three in maple trees, at 
altitudes varying from ten to twenty feet. In one part of this 
wood there is a great deal of grey lichen growing, chiefly on 
maple, which is possibly the attraction to the Hawfinches, for I 
do not remember to have seen a nest which had not some lichen 
in it. Many Chaffinches nest in this wood, as does also the Tree 
Sparrow, Passer montanus, and Chiffchaff, which last is, strange 
to say, a rare bird in Norfolk. LEven such a veteran collector as 
my friend Mr. Norgate has only met with a few nests of the 
Chiffchaff in the course of a long experience. On the same day 
(May 22nd) Mr. Baker proposed a visit to a small wood of spruce 
fir and oak, where there were about fifty Heron’s nests: I climbed 
up to several of them, all of which contained young, and found 
their chief food to be eels. In one nest there was an eel 
eighteen inches long, in another a roach. Some of the nests 
were more than four feet in diameter; as they were decidedly 
odoriferous, I only stayed by them long enough to observe that 
several contained four occupants, and others only three. The 
most cup-shaped were fully six inches deep, but others were mere 
shallow platforms, yet tightly woven. No doubt they become 
