8710 



Birds. 



the first specimen procured in Suffolk, was inserted by Mr. Hele in 

 the ' Field ' of June 13th. 



June 4. — One male and three females killed at Waxham, Norfolk. 

 Just twelve clays from the appearance of the first specimen, no others 

 apparently having been seen in the meantime, a small flock of eight 

 or nine birds w r ere found by the Rev. Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Gibbs, of 

 Waxham, feeding in a grass-field near that village, which is situated 

 on the coast about fourteen miles from Yarmouth. Four birds were 

 shot, of which two females were presented to the Norwich Museum 

 by Mr. Wheeler. These birds, singularly enough, are the only 

 females out of all that I have examined that exhibit any indication of 

 a band across the breast as in the males. In one it is very distinct ; 

 in the other, visible on each side close to the wings, and indistinctly 

 traceable across the chest. This may probably denote the fully adult 

 plumage of the female, as the ovaries in each case "were largely deve- 

 loped, some eggs being about the size of a common hemp-seed. 



June 5 and 6. — Two males and one female killed at Walberswick, 

 near Southwold, Suffolk. The first of these birds (female), as I learn 

 from Mr. Spalding, of Westleton, was shot from a small flock by 

 a labouring man on the shingle close by the sea. A male winged at 

 the same time was afterwards caught ; and the third was secured by 

 the gamekeeper to Sir J. Blois. Mr. Spalding also adds, "I took my 

 gun, and had a walk over the extensive heath of W'alberswick, when I 

 saw a covey of about eighteen birds. They flew exactly like the 

 golden plover, but I had no chance of a shot at them ; another parcel 

 contained seven, and another three birds. 



June 6. — A male taken alive at Elveden, near Thetford, Suffolk. 

 Of the capture of this bird on the Elveden estate Mr. Alfred Newton 

 has sent me the following notes : it is also the only specimen I have 

 yet heard of as procured so far inland in either Norfolk or Suffolk, 

 Elveden being situate on the borders of both counties: — " It was 

 brought to me," says Mr. Newton, ft by a stable lad, who found it as 

 he was exercising a horse in the morning. He thought it had been 

 drenched by the previous night's rain, and so rendered incapable of 

 flight. But on inquiry I found that a strange bird had been shot at 

 and hit two days before, by a man in the employ of our clergyman ; 

 and this was doubtless the cause of its being unable to get away from 

 the lad. From another source I learn that several sand grouse, or at 

 least unknown birds, were seen, and some of them killed, about the 

 same time on Wangford Warren. The tenant sent them at once to 

 London, saying nothing about them to any one. These last- were 



