122 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



notes as usual, with which he has been good enough to favour 

 me. These were only normal, but the incoming of migratory 

 Books in February and the great flight of Starlings in March 

 were abnormal. 



The Breeding Season (Cormorant, Spoonbill, Little Owl). — The 

 principal event which the breeding season was remarkable for 

 was the nesting of a pair of Cormorants on a lake of Lord 

 Hastings', in the north of Norfolk. This event carries us back 

 to the sixteenth century, when William Turner wrote (in 1544) 

 that he had himself seen them nesting "in Northfolcia cum 

 ardeis in excelsis arboribus." When this ceased we cannot say, 

 at any rate we have no record of their breeding in Norfolk since 

 the seventeenth century (Sir Thomas Browne). When my 

 father was a boy, there was a small colony of Cormorants at 

 Fritton Lake in the north of Suffolk, but I do not think he ever 

 visited them, although he alludes to the settlement in the 

 •'Zoologist' for 1846 (p. 1382). His collection still contains a 

 fine specimen in breeding plumage, which I imagine to be the 

 same that he records as shot on this lake on April 4th, 1848 

 ('Zoologist,' vi. p. 2185). That a few pairs went on breeding, 

 or trying to breed, as late as that is quite probable. Colonel 

 H. M. Leathes implies that such was the case (' Unnatural 

 Natural History Notes,' p. 57) ; and not many years ago a dead 

 tree was still standing on his side of the lake, which, according 

 to tradition, had been killed by their excrement. 



In 1879 Lady Crossley's decoyman was positive that no 

 Cormorants had nested either at Fritton or Herringfleet for 

 many years, or at least in his recollection, but with protection 

 they might probably be induced to return. 



In the opinion of the late Professor Newton, the Spoonbill 

 was in former days in the fullest sense of the word a native of 

 England, and there is no reason why it should not become so 

 again. Accordingly, throughout the summer, protection has 

 been afforded to any which had the good sense to avail themselves 

 of a sanctuary on Breydon mud-flats. One longs for the time 

 when a pair or two of these splendid birds may again breed at 

 Beedham, where there is a wood admirably suited to them, in 

 preference to the marshes of Holland. Mr. S. H. Long, who 

 has recently been in that country, kindly obtained from the 



