132 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



was very interesting to watch, but it was not until they were 

 seven months old that the white chest of the drake began to 

 appear. Mr. Knight also reared sixteen Pintail x Wild Duck 

 hybrids, the Pintail being the miale parent. These were about 

 eight months in reaching their full plumage, and by that time 

 the colour of the breast and head in the drakes was resplendent ; 

 but long before that their mixed parentage had been evident, 

 even when they were only two-thirds grown. Thirteen of these 

 hybrid ducklings were brought up under a hen, and the other 

 three by their own parents. This month Mr. Bird was informed 

 of a pair of Pochards being on Hickling Broad, the Duck feeding 

 as if just off her nest, which may have been on the dryer marsh. 



July. 



10th. — Swifts reappeared in Norwich (Southwell). 



12th. — Chaffinch and Thrush singing at Brunstead. 



13th. — Very hot day. Barn-Owls screaming. 



19th. — Two young Shovelers able to fly (Bird). 



20th. — Sharp thunderstorm; eighty panes of greenhouse glass 

 broken by the hailstones. 



2Ist. — A Porphyrio at Sutton Broad, and again seen after- 

 wards, but of which species was uncertain (Bird). 



22nd. — Four Cormorants on Breydon Broad (Jary). 



23rd. — Black-breasted Golden Plover killed at Sidestrand. 

 This and the one last year at Waxham are the earliest I 

 remember. 



31st. — One Cormorant on Calthorpe Broad (K. Gurney). My 

 keeper has had two Kestrels', one Sparrow-Hawk's, one Tawny 

 Owl's, and two Barn-Owls' nests within half a mile of his three 

 hundred young Pheasants, which the Sparrow-Hawks have not 

 touched ; but the Kestrels have paid him several unwelcome 

 visits. Sparrow-Hawks are not so bad for game in coops as they 

 are often represented (c/. Heatley Noble, Zool. 1900, p. 423) ; 

 they like a bird which can fly ; but Kestrels are certainly worse 

 than they used to be. I have found tame Peacocks which stray 

 into the woods a still worse enemy, and it is difficult to defend 

 the Carrion-Crow, whose character with gamekeepers is of the 

 blackest ; yet I still generally hear of one nest hereabouts, and 

 have a live one at the time of writing. 



