ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK. 125 



same day, and all near the coast, is very suggestive, and points 

 to the conclusion that the same meteorological conditions brought 

 them all. . 



The first thing to always consider on the coast is the wind. 

 The wind in Norfolk, and probably on all the eastern seaboard 

 of England, on Oct. 10th was from the west, in which direction 

 it had not been for fifteen days prior to the 9th. During the whole 

 of that fortnight it had blown steadily from E. or S.E. My 

 theory is that it was this sudden change of direction which 

 stopped the Lesser Grey Shrike, the Porphyrio, and the Little 

 Bunting, and caused them to halt on their journey, they having 

 already been carried considerably to the west of their proper 

 line of flight by the previously prevailing easterly winds. This, 

 I submit, is a more simple and a more natural way to account 

 for the presence of the Porphyrio than to think it had escaped ; 

 but cf. an article on these Porphyrios by Mr. Bird in 'The 

 Naturalist's Quarterly,' ii. p. 52. 



The imported Bustards. — There is no good news to give of 

 the Great Bustards turned down in the Brandon district in 

 August, 1900, which, it will be remembered, were reduced by 

 migration and disaster to four when the last " Norfolk Notes " 

 were printed. In March, 1902, Mr. J. S. Elliott wrote that one 

 of them, evidently a cock, had taken up its quarters at Croxton, 

 in Cambridgeshire. Very shortly afterwards I learnt from Prof. 

 Newton that a cock Bustard — probably the same bird — had been 

 caught alive at Oakington, also in Cambridgeshire. Whether 

 the captor had the patriotism to release it I cannot say, but Mr. 

 William Hill, in whose charge all these Bustards originally were, 

 wrote me some time later that a cock had been seen for some 

 time at Swaff ham Prior. This cock was considered by Mr. J. L. 

 Bonhote to have been the same Bustard, which, after being 

 loyally respected for nearly six months, was unfortunately shot 

 by a farmer who had not seen the placards which were posted up 

 about it, by order of the Chief Constable, at Bottisham, in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, on Sept. 25th. On Nov. 5th Mr. William Howlett 

 saw the two last remaining Bustards, a cock and a hen, at 

 Mildenhall, which is nine miles south of Brandon, and they were 

 again seen by others at Barton Mills ; these ore all that fire 

 left of the fifteen originally turned down! In June there was 



