Birds. 5159 



party, for she suddenly made straight towards me, and, coming close up, applied her 

 nose to my boot, and then, satisfied that there existed real ground for alarm, made off 

 into the depths of the covert with all possible haste, leaving her disappointed lover to 

 console himself as he best might. He no doubt was soon again upon her track, or 

 she had returned to him, but the increasing darkness rendered further observation on 

 my part impossible. Had it been a light night instead of a dark one, I might per- 

 haps have been in a position to enlighten such of the readers of the 'Zoologist' as 

 required enlightenment upon the point as to the amount of "delicate attentions" a 

 female hedgehog expects before she deigns to bestow her favours, — how much perse- 

 verance is necessary, and how great an amount of coaxing and cajoling it is requisite 

 to use before her scruples are removed and she becomes "nothing loath;" but, owing 

 to the abrupt termination of the " interview," I am unable at present to say whether 

 the process of gaining a hedgehog wife be a long, slow and tedious one, as was the 

 late siege of Sebastopol, or not: judging, however, from the fact that little or no pro- 

 gress appeared to be made during the period I watched the pair, — that at the end of 

 an hour's assiduous attention the wooer appeared to be as far from having his desires 

 gratified as at the beginning, — we may safely conclude it to be an exceedingly " slow 

 affair."— S. Stone; May 12, 1856. 



Occurrence of the Little Owl (Strix passerina) at Maidstone. — A fine specimen of 

 the little owl was lately taken in the neighbourhood of Maidstone, alive, and is so now 

 in my possession : it being a rara avis, I thought it would be interesting to ornitholo- 

 gists. — Whitmore Baker ; Maidstone, Kent, May, 1856. 



Rare Birds procured in Norfolk and Suffolk. — Early in May, 1856, a male blue- 

 throated warbler was killed near Lowestoft. About the middle of May a pair of 

 golden orioles were killed at Lakenham, near Norwich. About the end of May a male 

 specimen of the broadbilled sandpiper, in breeding plumage, was killed near Yarmouth. 

 —J. H. Gurney ; Catton Hall, Norfolk, June 12, 1856. 



Remarkable Destruction of Sea Birds on the Norfolk Coast.— On the morning of 

 Sunday, May llth (after some severe north-east gales), a very large number of sea- 

 birds, recently dead, were observed on the beach in the neighbourhood of Cromer, 

 Norfolk : they were washed up, mixed with sea-weed, and were found lying near the 

 edge of the water in considerable numbers, so much so that a lady counted 240 in 

 the space of not more than two miles: many were gathered for manure, one man col- 

 lecting four cart-loads, partly composed of sea-weed, but principally of dead birds. I 

 have ascertained that they extended along the beach in the neighbourhood of Cromer 

 for full six miles. I am also informed that many were washed up at Caister, near 

 Yarmouth ; and I have no doubt that others may have been found on other parts of 

 the coast, respecting which no information has reached me. I have had some diffi- 

 culty in ascertaining the exact species of the birds thus destroyed, but, as far as I can 

 learn, they were chiefly foolish guillemots, intermingled with razorbills, puffins and 

 gulls. — Id. 



Crossbill breeding in the North of England. — The crossbill (Loxia curvirostris) has 

 this spring been detected breeding on the banks of the Tyne, a nest, containing three 



