NOTES AND NEWS. 191 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The recently - published "Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society" (vol. vi., part 2), contains a paper on an "Early 

 Notice of Spoonbill Breeding in Norfolk," by Professor Newton. The 

 notice is contained in the lately-published Patent Rolls of King Edward I. ; 

 the entry is for the year 1300, and the bird is referred to by its ancient name 

 " Popeler." There is also a note by Mr. C. T. M. Plowright, of two Black- 

 winged Stilts seen by him on Wolferton Marsh, October 8, 1895, and of one 

 shot at Castleacre, October 12, 1895. 



In the Irish Naturalist for October, Mr. E. Blake Knox records his 

 obtaining two specimens of the Wood - sandpiper (Totanus glareola), in 

 Co. Wicklow, last August. 



A noteworthy event has been the recent occurrence of Macqueen's Bus- 

 tard, in East Yorkshire. It was first seen on October 17, in a vetch-stubble 

 at Kilnsea, by Messrs. W. Eagle Clarke and Harry F. Witherby, and was 

 shot at without effect the same day by Colonel White. Mr. G. E. Chubley 

 killed it the next day in a wheat-stubble at Easington. The bird was 

 28^ inches in length, and weighed 3 lbs. 11 ozs. 



Other recent occurrences of rare birds include an Icterine Warbler, shot 

 on September 7 by Mr. Robert Gurney, in the marram-bushes at Cley, Nor- 

 folk ; a Rose-coloured Pastor, near Liss, in Hampshire, on May 4, this year, 

 and a White Stork, (Ciconia alba) near Coleshill, Warwickshire, about the 

 end of September. 



At the recent annual meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, the Report of the Committee appointed by the Zoological 

 Section for the purpose of drawing up a digest of the observations on migra- 

 tion made at lighthouses along the British coast, was submitted. The Com- 

 mittee, which consisted of Professor Newton, Messrs. John Cordeaux, J. A. 

 Harvie-Brown, 11. M. Barrington, W. Eagle Clarke, and the Rev. E. P. 

 Knubley, dealt, among other things, with the subject of intermigration 

 between the south-east coast of England and the coast of Western Europe, 

 and pointed out that some entirely new facts had been ascertained in con- 

 nection with this matter. After dealing fully with the sources and destina- 

 tions of the migration streams, particularly those to be observed off the coast 

 of East Anglia, in autumn, the report submitted that the conclusions to be 

 drawn from a careful study of the subject were, that the direction of the 

 wind had no influence whatever as an incentive to migration, but that its 

 force was certainly an important factor, inasmuch as it might make migra- 

 tion an impossibility, arrest to a greater or lesser degree its progress, or even 

 blow birds out of their course. 



