ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK. 85 



was no doubt the reason of its seeming tameness, and from which 

 it soon died. Diseases among Wood-Pigeons are rather com- 

 mon, but I never heard before of such a case in a wild Owl. 



4th. — A gathering of Long- eared Owls at Calthorpe, near the 

 sea; also a Harrier and twelve Bearded Tits (R. Gurney). 

 Twenty-five Whooper Swans at Hickling (A. Nudd). 



5th.— Bittern booming (M. C. Bird). 



7th. — A Dunlinf at Keswick. 



8th. — Two Bewick's Swans at Yarmouth (B. Dye), and six at 

 Hickling (Bird). 



19th. — Bean-Goose at Yarmouth (Dye). 



24th. — A Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus, L.),f 

 female, obtained in the Wash, and sent from King's Lynn, with 

 some Coots and Knots, to a poulterer at Birmingham, was there 

 detected by Mr.' Coburn (Zool. 1900, p. 317), who secured it. 

 Although a large specimen (measuring — culmen 1*5 in., tarsus 

 2*4 in., length 22 in.), there seems no doubt that Mr. Coburn has 

 correctly identified it. He remarks that its legs were not yellow, 

 but they would naturally change after death to a reddish orange, 

 which is what Mr. Coburn describes them to have been. In this 

 example, which, through the kindness of Mr. Coburn, was 

 exhibited at a meeting of the Norwich Naturalists' Society, the 

 white forehead extends nearly up to a point between the eyes, 

 which is generally considered a distinctive mark of A. erythropus. 

 Some ornithologists would unite A. erythropus and A. alhifrons, 

 but in that case the American A . gambeli cannot be kept apart, and 

 there is an immense difference in size between the two extremes ; 

 and, as the habitats of A. erythropus and A. albifrons are to some 

 extent different, although both inhabit Central Europe and some 

 part of Asia, it seems undesirable to unite them. Seebohm has 

 done so, but they are kept apart by Count Salvadori, our latest 

 authority. It is possible that a White-fronted Goose shot on 

 Breydon in January, 1880, and described by Mr. Stevenson as 

 somewhat small, may have been A. erythropus, a bird, as Mr. 

 Coburn's specimen shows, easy to pass over. 



February. 

 7th. — An unfortunate Bittern shot in the suburbs of Norwich, 

 close to the City Road Station, where there is a small expanse of 

 water (T. E. Gunn). 



