Ionian Sj^ 



THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 875.— May 15th, 1914. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL REPOET FOR NORFOLK (1913). 

 By J. H. Gurney, F.Z.S. 



(Assisted by Members of the Norwich Naturalists' Society.) 

 (Plate II.) 



As usual I take up, with the Editor's permission, the duties 

 which fall to an ornithological coroner, and in doing so feel it 

 to be a matter for satisfaction that these annual "Norfolk Notes" 

 are now, for the most part, the records of birds identified, not 

 killed. Gamekeepers, however, still continue to shoot many 

 creatures, both winged and furred, which they had better let 

 alone. It happened to the present writer last year (July 18th) to 

 inspect a gamekeeper's "larder-tree," on which were suspended 

 the following delinquents (besides many Hedgehogs, Squirrels, 

 Stoats, Weasels, and Cats) : twenty-six Jays, two Hooded 

 Crows, one Spotted Woodpecker, six beautiful Kestrels, and three 

 Tawny Owls ; afterwards increased to eight Owls, as I was 

 informed, in spite of the law, which is a dead letter. During 

 the summer an adult Hobby was sacrificed to a keeper's ignor- 

 ance, just at the time when it should have been going to nest 

 (May 21st), and this happens every year. Forty-seven years 

 ago Henry Stevenson could write of the Hobby as a very regular 

 summer migrant, but Plate II. shows what happens to Hawks in 

 Norfolk nowadays. I am afraid a good many Kestrels and 

 Brown Owls were also killed. 



The Spring Migration. — The spring of 1913 was chiefly notice- 

 able for a lamentable deficiency among our garden favourites — 

 Willow-Warblers, Whitethroats, Nightingales, Redstarts, Garden - 

 Zobl. 4th ser. vol. XVIII., May, 1914. o 



