ORNITHOLOGICAL REPORT FOR NORFOLK. 123 



esting to compare our migration notes with those kept by 

 Mr. J. L. Bonhote, on the opposite side of the North Sea, be- 

 tween Sept. 15th and Oct. 10th (see ' Ornis,' 1909, p. 162). 

 Mr. Bonhote's station was on Texel Island, on the north coast of 

 Holland, but on the whole there is less agreement between our 

 Norfolk observations and those kept by him than might be 

 expected. His first observations on the Starling are " large 

 immigrations took place between Sept. 20th and 22nd," but not 

 many of them came to Norfolk. It is true that, rising early on 

 the 20th, I noted, at 5.30 a.m., the presence of several Star- 

 lings, which I concluded had come in during the night, and at 

 8 a.m. I rode down to the cliff, but could not see any more 

 coming in, nor in the afternoon, when the wind had got up and 

 was S.S.E. Again, Mr. Bonhote's October dates of immigrations 

 of Starlings to the Dutch coast do not fit in with ours very well, 

 but his dates for the Redstarts do, the large increase noticed on 

 Sept. 24th coinciding with the rush between Wells and Cromer 

 on Sept. 23rd and 24th. But the greatest discrepancy, and one 

 which is very suggestive, is in the case of the House-Martin, 

 which was so very abundant in Norfolk, and of which Mr. Bonhote 

 only saw one individual, thus indicating that Martins follow the 

 west coast-line of the North Sea and not the east when they go 

 south. His remarks on the Bar-tailed Godwit show, although 

 dates do not quite coincide, that these birds were just as abundant 

 in Holland as upon our East Coast, for on Sept. 15th and 16th, 

 Mr. Bonhote tells us, enormous numbers were present, but most 

 of them left on the 17th, by which time they had diminished in 

 Norfolk. There was nothing in Norfolk to coincide with the 

 incredible numbers of Oystercatchers and Great Black-backed 

 Gulls seen by him ; indeed, the latter is always rare with us in 

 comparison with the Lesser Black-backed Gull. 



Diphtheria in Wood-Pigeons. — The diphtheric affection which 

 decimated the Wood-Pigeons in some counties did not manifest 

 itself so largely in Norfolk as elsewhere, but not a few were 

 picked up by gamekeepers during January, February, and March. 

 Two or three which came under examination had their mouths 

 more or less blocked up with a viscid yellow substance, which 

 was enough to prevent their feeding, if it did not in time kill them 

 by suffocation. The disease, fortunately, does not appear to be 



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