THE ZOOLOGIS 



No. 886.— April 15th, 1915. 



r^jSo IntiitZft' 



OKNITHOLOGICAL REPORT FOE NORFOLK (1914). 

 By J. H. Gukney. 



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



In spite of the valuable notes which local naturalists are 

 always good enough to contribute to this annual Eeport, Norfolk 

 ornithology for the year 1914 is represented by but a meagre 

 budget. The Waxwing invasion soon spent itself ; it created 

 some excitement while it lasted, but all about the so-called 

 " harbingers of famine " has been pretty well chronicled. They 

 continued to be fairly numerous during January and February, 

 but none were seen later than April 5th (E. Colman), by which 

 time most of them were probably dead. They were even more 

 abundant in Belgium, but no single flight either there or in 

 England equalled what were seen in Toul, in Eastern France 

 (' Eevue Fran. d'Orn.' 1914, p. 315). 



The Spring Migration. — I was in the south of France with 

 my son in April watching Bee-eaters and White-winged Terns, 

 and therefore had no opportunity of recording the arrival of 

 spring migrants in Norfolk, yet I could not fail to remark one 

 thing, which has struck me before, viz. how very little difference 

 there is in the dates of their arrival on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, and the shores of the English Channel. The 

 passage through France of such birds as Swallows, Nightingales, 

 Redstarts, Cuckoos, Warblers, Whitethroats, and Flycatchers 

 must be performed in a very few days — that is certain. But 

 although I was absent, the Rev. M. C. Bird, of Brunstead, kept 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. XIX., April, 1915. L 



