THE ZOOLOGIS 



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JUL 1 1916 



No. 900.— June 15th, 1916.\fe 



f^al Muse*** 



ORNITHOLOGICAL REPORT FOR NORFOLK (1915). 

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



Owing to the war the usual number of Norfolk notes did not 

 come to hand in 1915, many observers having gone to the front ; 

 moreover, the military restrictions on certain parts of the coast 

 impeded the making of observations. 



The Spring Migration. — April opened fine and dusty. Colonel 

 Irby saw a Swallow on the 9th ; on the 11th the Woodpecker was 

 loudly vibrating ; the Redshank was at Dunston on the 12th, and 

 by the 13th there were Partridges' eggs at Ditchingham (W. Carr). 

 Statistics about the emigration of birds from our shores in March 

 are more wanted than dates of arrivals in April. Thousands of 

 birds must quit Norfolk, or at least pass over it, about that time, 

 but we really know exceedingly little about their movements. 



For the first time the Breydon watcher's note-book does not 

 contain a single reference to Spoonbills, but the cannon practice 

 which has gone on in the vicinity is enough to account for their 

 favourite tidal broad being forsaken by these annual visitants. 



The Breeding Season.— Between the end of the spring migra- 

 tion and the beginning of the autumnal arrivals there is a period 

 of inactivity in bird-life. For the space of ten weeks no migration 

 goes on, if we except the departure of the Swift and the adult 

 Cuckoo. 



But this is the bird-nester's busy time, and the period when 

 Zool. 4th ser., vol. XX., June, 1916. r 



