Birds. 1391 



seen them at this early part of the migratory season, asleep on 

 the beach, and even when disturbed, very unwilling to move. 



As the winter approaches, older birds appear and in larger flocks, 

 and if severe weather should set in, their numbers are occasionally 

 enormous. As an instance of this, it may be mentioned that on the 

 11th of December, 1844, there were brought to a dealer at Yarmouth 

 upwards of 800 dunlins and 500 snipes, and on the 16th of the same 

 month 200 dunlins and 300 snipes, besides many other birds of diffe- 

 rent species ; and a similar extraordinary appearance of wild fowl is 

 mentioned by the Messrs Paget in the * Sketch of the Natural History 

 of Yarmouth,' to have occurred in the year 1829. 



We have also more than once, towards the end of autumn, observed 

 the sea within a quarter of a mile of the shore, to be covered with an 

 almost incredible quantity of fowl floating in an extended line. On 

 one of these occasions when the water was very smooth, we observed 

 that the foremost birds of the flock suddenly rise, as soon as they were 

 drifted by the tides into the ripple caused by a neighbouring sand, 

 their example being immediately followed by those in the rear, when 

 the whole assemblage would fly back to the distance of about half-a- 

 mile, and again settle on the water, repeating the manoeuvre as often as 

 the tide carried them to the point from which they had risen. 



The various species of gulls are more common at these than at any 

 other seasons of the year. From their aquatic habits, and the nature of 

 their food, it is difficult to attain a thorough knowledge of their num- 

 bers, and that part of the Catalogue in which they are comprised, may 

 consequently be considered as the most imperfect. 



The species of which we have hitherto spoken, although differing 

 from one another in many points, are yet alike in this respect, that 

 their migrations are, with the few exceptions which we have mentioned, 

 regular, and ascertained. 



It remains to notice a class of birds whose movements are extremely 

 uncertain, but which, nevertheless, form a large proportion of the birds 

 of Norfolk, being about eighty in number. 



Under the head of the regular migrants, we have already referred to 

 the occasional uncertainty attending the movements of the common 

 and rough-legged buzzards, and also to the supposed gregarious 

 nature of their migrations. The same remarks may, in a great mea- 

 sure, be applied to the honey-buzzard, which however, is a much 

 rarer, and even somewhat more uncertain visiter: like the rough- 

 legged buzzard it has been observed in pairs in the autumn, and it 

 seldom occurs in an adult state, but the birds found are by no means 



