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Mr. J. H. Gurney,



Spurn Head), was extraordinarily destructive to the tops of oak-trees,

which it snapped off, owing, it was supposed, to brittleness after the

prolonged drought, but the Rev. M. C. H. Bird attributed it to the

enormous crop of acorns.


October.


1st. — The next day a Gannet came ashore alive at Lowestoft

(C. B. Ticehurst), and Mr. Ramm identified three Little Gulls at

Blakeney, as well as some Grey Phalaropes which had been carried

out of their course by the violence of the wind. A Fork-tailed Petrel

was brought to Mr. Pashley, and an Arctic Skua was picked up in

the Naval Asylum grounds at Yarmouth.


3rd.— N.W., 2. To-day Mr. Bird reports the unusual number

of seven Land-Rails on Ruston Common ; probably this also was the

effect of the gale. Another Gannet, a young male, was picked up

at Horsey (E. Saunders), and the next day another found dying in

Lowestoft Harbour (C. B. Ticehurst). They certainly are commoner

in Norfolk than they used to be. On the 16tli I saw a young one

dead on Cromer Lighthouse hills, but it had been defunct a long

time.


6th. — The night of October 5th was again boisterous, a strong

gale blowing from the north-east, which at seven o’clock next morning

was only three points less in its velocity than that of the week before

(September 30th). Coming as it did at the height of the migratory

season, and from the north-east, it was to be expected that it would

have an immediate effect upon birds, with the movements of which

wind is an all-important factor, as Norfolk naturalists know welL

Accordingly, the following day the head-woodman at Hempstead,

near Holt, informed me that he had seen a bird answering to the-

description of a Nutcracker. This it proved to be. The unfortunate

bird lived to get as far as Cawston, where there is a large fir-wood,

where, presumably the same individual, was shot that afternoon.

On the same day, and only about two miles from where the Nut¬

cracker was first seen, a Hoopoe turned up.


9th. — N.N.E., 4. Another Nutcracker shot at Sparham,

within five miles of where the other was shot, and it is not unlikely

that they came over together on the night of the 5th, with a third



