ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK. 139 



the weird *' hoo-hoo " of three or four Tawny Owls answering 

 one another on a starlight night in December — a sound so 

 vigorous, and yet so difficult to locate ; and I believe Lord 

 Lilford is right in saying that a clear frost only makes them more 

 noisy. They go on at intervals to midsummer, and young and 

 old carry on a regular concert at the end of July over their 

 evening supper in the ivy-clad trees. The Tawny Owl is not so 

 dazzled by the light as a Barn- Owl, which in the daytime acts as 

 if it was half-blind. A curious accident happened in April to an 

 Owl which struck the engine of the Fakenham train whilst in 

 motion, attracted, it was supposed, by the light on the engine. 

 It passed clean through the engine-driver's small look-out win- 

 dow, smashing the thick glass to pieces, and was picked up with 

 only a broken leg. From the stationmaster's description it was 

 probably a Tawny Owl. Owls sometimes, I am told, fly round 

 Cromer lighthouse without striking, either attracted by the light, 

 or in pursuit of moths which hover round it. 



3 1 St. — A hen Pheasant shot about this time at Caister had 

 spurs, but no indication whatever of male plumage, as I am told, 

 for I only saw its leg. It is not the first time such a Pheasant 

 has been obtained, but they are very uncommon. 



Varieties of Plumage. 

 One of those curious chestnut- coloured Partridges was seen 

 near Dereham in October, and the same or another was shot near 

 that place on Nov. 23rd, by which time it was in superb plumage, 

 and very like the plate in ' The Zoologist ' (1900). I am much 

 indebted to Mr. W. L. Boyle for this richly marked example,! 

 which has the usual light-coloured head, but is rather greyer on 

 the upper part of the back than the one I illustrated. Surely no 

 such persistent instance of erythryism is known in any other 

 species of bird ; while the similarity of all the Norfolk speci- 

 mens is very remarkable, and might well excuse the continental 

 naturalists of a former generation for making a species of Perdicc 

 montana. About Dec. 20th another f was shot, also on the 

 Bylaugh estate, and transmitted to Mr. Gunn, at whose house I 

 saw it — a large bird, much more spangled on the back than mine, 

 but having, like the rest of these birds, a little of the pale colour 

 of the head scattered over the upper part of the breast. Both my 



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