90 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



There is nothing which calls for particular remark in my 

 note-book for October except the occurrence of a Quail at 

 Northrepps on the 20th of that month. It was so fine up to the 

 middle of October that strawberries were gathered out of doors, 

 and migratorj' birds passed on without halting. 



Nov. 9th. — A Guillemot seized a hook baited with a herring, 

 from the Yarmouth pier, and was hauled up alive (Patterson). 

 10th. — Received a Pomatorhine Skua from Mr. Patterson. 16th. 

 — A Little Auk was picked up on Overstrand beach by Mr. Cole, 

 and about the same time three others were procured at Cley, and 

 one at Yarmouth. Mr. Pashley had a Fork-tailed Petrel, and 

 Mr. Smith another from the Bure Marshes on the 21st; two 

 Glaucous Gulls and three Little Gulls were shot about the 24th, 

 but two of them were lost. These " waifs and strays " were due 

 probably to the tremendous weather which at that date cost 

 many lives and the loss of nearly ;£ 100,000 worth of fishing-gear 

 at Yarmouth alone. Undoubtedly the gales were the cause 

 of many buffeted and half-starved Guillemots, Puffins and Razor- 

 bills being washed up dead at Cley, Cromer and Caister, and 

 amongst them on the 23rd a young Black Guillemot which was 

 sent alive to Norwich. 



Dec. 4th. — Mr. Lowne received a very large russet-coloured 

 female Snipe from Caister, answering to Gould's Gallinago 

 russata, but from the white of the under parts being less exten- 

 sive than is usually the case, it might be a hybrid between the 

 Common Snipe and Gallinago major. He brought it to Norwich, 

 where Mr. Southwell examined it, and I compared it from 

 memory with a very curious Snipe which was shot in 1886 and 

 shortly described at the time (Zool. 1886, p. 392). 9th. — A 

 hybrid, tame-bred, between a Greenfinch and a Mountain 

 Finch, which was exhibited at the Norwich Show, showed no 

 trace of the Brambling in its plumage ; another evidence that the 

 parentage of hybrids taken in a wild state is not always to be 

 judged by their colour. This cross must be very rare, as it has 

 not been noticed by Mr. Macpherson in his remarks on " Hybrid 

 Finches" (Trans Norfolk Nat. Soc. iv. p. 367). Several hybrids 

 between Goldfinch and Bullfinch were also exhibited, as well as 

 a white Redpoll with a crimson forehead, one of the most beautiful 

 varieties I remember to have seen. 



