202 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



all sorts of holes and crevices amongst the rocks. 

 From amongst the bents and sand-grass just above the 

 foreshore we put up a short-eared owl, — " woodcock 

 owl " it is often called, for the two are fellow-travellers, 

 and if the owl is noted the long-bills will not be far 

 behind. The lighthouse keeper will tell us that next 

 to the skylarks in point of numbers come the starlings. 

 The two together constitute a large proportion of the 

 basketful of dead or crippled birds which he picks up 

 below the light in the morning. But in regular " mi- 

 gration weather," warm and foggy, birds often appear 

 to lose their way, and anything may ^ turn up. One 

 Norfolk naturalist fell in with a whole flock of blue- 

 throats, and certain Lincolnshire ornithologists, who 

 regularly work the fringe of thickets behind the fore- 

 shore or at the back of the dunes at migration time, 

 know from experience that there is no rare warbler, 

 European or even Asiatic, whose occurrence is beyond 

 the bounds of possibility. 



Rough weather with snow-squalls will, later on, 

 bring the Snow Buntings, with a sprinkling of Shore 

 Larks. A bird-catcher has been known to net sixty- 

 four of the latter at a single haul upon Yarmouth denes. 

 A heavy gale towards the end of the month causes 

 various storm-driven wanderers to appear inshore, 

 whereas in fine weather their path of southerly migra- 

 tion lies far out at sea. Sometimes from the harbour 

 pier one may see a Storm Petrel flitting amongst the 



