24 THE ORNITHOLOGIST. 



was to be seen in Norfolk. On that day one of the largest 

 nights passed Cromer and the adjacent village of Overstrand. 

 There had been a very high wind, in fact a gale, in the night 

 from north-north-west, and at 11 a.m. not a single Gull was 

 visible from the cliff. When the great flight or passage of 

 Gulls began I cannot say, but it certainly must have com- 

 menced soon after 11 a.m. I did not go to the shore again 

 from that time until 3 p.m., when the wind was still blowing 

 from the west, but greatly moderated, and numbers of Gulls 

 were passing. How many hours they continued going by I do 

 not know ; but if they continued filing past for nine hours, 

 11,880 must have gone by. This is reckoning that a flock 

 passed every minute, and that the average number in a flock 

 was twenty-two. They were chiefly young Herring-Gulls and 

 Lesser Black-backs with some common Gulls (L. canus) and 

 a few adult Great Black-backs (L. marinus), and now and 

 then a Black-headed Gull (L. ridibundus) . All were going in 

 the same direction, west-north-west. The next day the wind 

 was in much the same quarter, but the Gulls had all dis- 

 appeared. On the 10th (the day before this great flight) the 

 wind had been from the north ; on the 9th I believe it was 

 north or north-west, and on the 8th north-north-west. On 

 the 7th it was north-north-east — that is, straight on shore at 

 Cromer, so that Gulls would have no advantage whichever 

 way they went, and accordingly only three were seen ; but 

 these three were going in the customary direction, viz., west- 

 wards, against the wind. 



On the 26th of the same October great numbers of gulls 

 were again flying west as before, and, being desirous of gain- 

 ing an accurate notion of their numbers, I stood for two hours 

 by my watch on the shore at Overstrand and counted them 

 roughly as they passed. In the first hour, commencing at 

 3.20 p.m., as near as I can say, about 415 passed ; in the 

 second hour about 345 passed. They were very close to the 

 shore, and consisted of the same species as before, and were 

 nearly all in flocks of from ten to twenty, but Common Gulls 

 preponderated, with many young Herring-Gulls and Black- 

 backs. At 5.30 their regiments were still defiling past as 

 steadily as ever, and every little company took exactly the 



