ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK. 129 



single Gull is silent; but it is all vocal noise, for the multitude 

 of wings make no sound. If they shut their beaks they would be 

 as noiseless as so many Owls. The first time I visited Scoulton 

 Gullery was in 1860, and that year there were gathered 16,000 

 eggs, supposed to be the produce of about 7000 Gulls, and I 

 doubt if that number has ever been surpassed since. 



The following particulars of the number of eggs taken in the 

 last five years at this important breeding-place have been kindly 

 supplied by Mr. Robert Baldry, agent to the estate : — 1898, 

 5736 eggs; 1899, 6618 eggs ; 1900, 7474 eggs ; 1901, 7654 eggs; 

 1902, 900 eggs. 



8th. — Mr. Watson, of Letton, saw a Mistle-Thrush actually 

 strike and kill a Jackdaw as it was circling round the tree which 

 contained the Thrush's nest. They are strong birds, and I have 

 often been threatened by them in the most determined manner 

 when near a nest, both male and female dashing round with loud 

 cries. A few days ago my nephew put a Barn-Owl off her eggs, 

 when immediately a pugnacious Mistle-Thrush knocked her 

 quite off the bough on which she had perched, and which was 

 probably near its own nest. 



9th. — Young Rooks very backward. Six Norfolk Plovers' 

 nests reported in the ' Field ' by N. G. 



10th. — Nidification of the Ringed Plover. — Thanks to Mr. 

 Cresswell, who has put on a paid watcher, the breeding-place of 

 the Ringed Plover, Common and Lesser Tern, and Lapwing on 

 our north coast is in a more flourishing condition than formerly. 

 No egg-stealers can go there now, but the Grey Crows are credited 

 by Mr. Cresswell with some depredations before they leave to go 

 north, always clearing off the earliest Lapwing's eggs. In the 

 course of a ramble with that gentleman over the principal 

 nesting-ground, we were shown by the watcher nine Ringed 

 Plovers' nests containing eggs, two others with the eggs just 

 hatched off, and several empty nests (maybe "play-holes"), and 

 one with an egg and three young birds. These were only just 

 hatched, the female having doubtless left them at our approach, 

 for the down on them was still wet, and one chick not quite out 

 of the dorsal half of its egg-shell. I noticed how neatly the 

 shell had been divided into two, in effecting which the beak of 

 the parent Plover had probably helped. It seems fairly evident 



