420 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Goldcrests was quite unprecedented in my experience. I did not 

 see any on 13th, but on 14th and 15th they swarmed in every 

 hedge in thousands, and were so tame that they could almost be 

 caught by hand. Robins and Hedgesparrows were also numerous ; 

 all the Thrushes, except Fieldfares, were moving, but Blackbirds 

 not till the 15th ; Ring Ouzels pretty common on 14th and 15th." 



Out of fourteen Woodcocks shot on the 15th, all of which I 

 handled, seven were probably young of the year, and had the 

 outer web of the first primary brownish and very regularly tooth- 

 marked throughout. In four the outer web was whitish and the 

 marks obliterated ; in the remaining three these markings were 

 of an intermediate character — perhaps birds of the previous year. 

 If the nature of these notches can be taken as an indication of 

 age, then it would appear that the old and young come at the 

 same time and in the same flight. 



Writing from Heligoland, Mr. Gatke says : — " We had Red- 

 breasts and Goldcrests on the 11th, 12th, and 13th; the former 

 in good numbers, the latter nothing like your numbers ; on the 

 14th only in the morning, great rush over the island, but none 

 staying." On the Norfolk coast also, on 15th, Robins are reported 

 as 100 ; Golden-crested Wrens in swarms. 



In both these cases of " great rushes," which I have cited 

 under similar meteorological conditions, great flights of migrants 

 were evidently passing the North Sea, probably from N.E. to 

 S.W., when the easterly gales caught them on the flank, and 

 drove them helter-skelter on to the east coast. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Presentation to the Rev. Leonard Blomefield, M.A., F.L.S. — An 

 event of some interest to naturalists took place at the last meeting of the 

 Linnean Society, held on the 17th inst., when a congratulatory address, 

 illuminated on vellum, was presented to the Rev. Leonard Blomefield, M.A., 

 F.L.S. (formerly Leonard Jenyns, Vicar of Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridge- 

 shire, but sometime resident in Bath), on the occasion of the seventieth 

 anniversary of his election as a Fellow of the Society, and in recognition of 

 his continuous and useful labours as a zoologist. 



Mr. Blomefield was elected in November, 1822, and is now in his 

 93rd year. He is an original member of the Zoological, Entomological, 



