124 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



September; Lesser Grey Shrike and Porphyrio in October; 

 Glossy Ibis in November ; and Little Bustard in December. An 

 Eagle Owl is also supposed, on the word of an intelligent game- 

 keeper, to have been seen at Trimingham (cf. Pigott, Bull. 

 B. O. Club, xiii. p. 20), where Owls of all kinds have for many 

 years been protected. 



The Little Bustard, as usual, was in December. This is at 

 least the fourth which has occurred in Norfolk in December, and 

 throughout the whole of East England it may be said to be 

 nearly always in the winter that this bird appears, and generally 

 in one of the three winter months — November, December, or 

 January. This is rather remarkable, because it is a southern 

 species whose breeding area lies on both sides of the Mediter- 

 ranean. It must be that our winter Little Bustards are blown from 

 somewhere in Eastern Europe, perhaps the plains of Southern 

 Russia, or even farther east than that. It is not stated by authors 

 that they breed north of lat. 50, but they may be extending 

 their range beyond that to some fresh districts not yet discovered. 



I must now refer to a noticeable coincidence which took 

 place on Saturday, Oct. 11th, the day on which the Green-backed 

 Porphyrio was first seen ; two other very rare birds had also 

 landed in England, perhaps in its company, viz. a Lesser Grey 

 Shrike in Norfolk, and a Little Bunting in Durham. On the 

 same day a Glossy Ibis was shot in Herefordshire, and another 

 the following day in Sussex. Besides this it was observed that on 

 the two preceding days (Oct. 9th and 10th) a great deal of 

 migration was going on in Norfolk, and especially in Lincoln- 

 shire (Mr. Caton Haigh), such well-known over-sea travellers as 

 Harriers (two), Rough-legged Buzzard (one), Ring-Ouzels, Red- 

 wings, Robins, and Lapwings coming particularly under notice. 

 To those who live on the coast, October is a month for being 

 always on the alert, and I was so impressed with the idea that 

 something was coming that morning, that I hurried down to the 

 cliffs after breakfast ; though probably it was already too late, as 

 my journal says : " Oct. 10th, no birds coming over, as I had ex- 

 pected." But there were some good birds, only they did not 

 come my way; for a Porphyrio, a Lesser Grey Shrike, and a 

 Little Bunting were perhaps actually crossing the sea ! To my 

 mind, the coincidence of these three birds being met with on the 



