ORNITHOLOGICAL REPORT FOR NORFOLK. 133 



many seeds of the sorrel, sheep's sorrel, and spurrey (Spergula). 

 These facts are commended to the attention of farmers. 



19th. — The following plants have lately been identified by 

 the School of Agriculture at Cambridge from the crops of Nor- 

 folk-killed Pheasants : — Ranunculus Jicaria, R. acris, Taraxacum 

 officinale, Plantago lanceolata, Galium aparine, Galeopsis, Cheno- 

 podium album, Brachypodium, Silene, and Polygonum. That both 

 Partridges and wild Pheasants do more good than harm can 

 hardly be questioned, but when great quantities of tame Phea- 

 sants are reared, nature is altered and they become destructive. 



23rd. — Montagu's Harrier at Lessingham (Bird). 



24th. — Mr. C. B. Ticehurst inspected a nest of the Lesser 

 Spotted Woodpecker at Ellingham. The diameter of the hole,t 

 which was in a nearly dead elm-tree, about seventeen feet from 

 the ground, was 1*3 in. The young flew on June 9th, having 

 been very noisy for some days previously. This Woodpecker 

 appears to be much less common in Norfolk than in some of the 

 Midlands. In East Norfolk it is decidedly rarer than the Greater 

 Spotted Woodpecker, yet in Suffolk the Rev. J. Tuck considers 

 them equally distributed. May I ask if any of your readers 

 have noticed the curious scratches made by Woodpeckers on the 

 trunks of trees, especially the lower portion of oak trees? These 

 indentations are often two or three inches long, and must be 

 caused by the Woodpecker's claws ; in most cases they are no 

 doubt attributable to the Green Woodpecker. 



27th. — A Guillemot in summer plumage picked up on the 

 beach (B. Dye). 



June. 



1st. — The colony of Black-headed Gulls on the salt-marshes 

 at Wells has so prospered since their return to " Mow Creek" in 

 1906 (see ' Norwich Nat. Trans.,' viii. p. 494), that there are 

 stated to be this year two hundred nests. On the other hand, 

 the Hoveton Gullery is short of its usual complement, the 

 number breeding there being very small, which the owner attri- 

 butes not so much to the dry weather as to molestation by Otters, 

 which are accused of killing some of the old Gulls on their nests. 

 At Scoulton their numbers were maintained; this and the 

 Staffordshire settlement visited by Ray in 1662 are the oldest 

 gulleries of which we have any record. My first visit to the 



