6602 



Birds, 



Ornithological Notes for May and June. — May 4th. A fine old male spoonbill, 

 with a rich buff-coloured band across the breast, was shot at Hickling, in this county, 

 and about the same time a male pied flycatcher: this is rather a favourite locality for 

 the latter species on its arrival here in spring. Another male was obtained on 

 the 5th, at Hunstanton. May 13. A woodcock was flushed to-day in a plantation at 

 Spinworth, near Norwich, which probably had a nest close by. Six grasshopper 

 warblers obtained at Surlingham, in the marshes adjoining the Broad, between the 7th 

 and 27th of May ; others heard singing up to the 12th of June. A woodcock's nest, 

 with four eggs, was discovered at Aylmerton, near Cromer, on the 28th of April, in a 

 valley planted with birch and oak: on the 19th of May two young ones were safely 

 hatched and carried off by their parents, leaving the other two eggs in the nest. 

 May 21. A pair of pied flycatchers, in adult plumage, shot at Beeston: these birds, 

 though in small numbers, seem to visit us pretty regularly in spring, appearing almost 

 invariably in certain favourite localities, either, as in this instance, on the coast, or in 

 the vicinity of the Broads, as at Horsey and Hickling, where they occasionally remain 

 to breed. Some singular varieties of nightingale's eggs were lately found in a nest at 

 Ketteringham, in this county : they were all much lighter in tint than usual, and 

 more or less spotted over the larger end, one of them exactly corresponding with the 

 figure given by Mr. Hewitson, in his 'British Birds' Eggs' (third edition), as a rare 

 variety. — H. Stevenson; Norwich, June 15, 1859. 



Occurrence of the Hobby in the Fern Islands. — On the 15th instant I picked up, on 

 one of the uninhabited Fern Islands, a fine specimen of the hobby (Falco subbuteo), a 

 male, in adult plumage: the bird was uninjured and fresh. On inquiry I found that 

 it had alighted, in an apparently exhausted condition, three days before, on the 

 Brownsman Island, and had been caught by the keeper's children, from whom it had 

 escaped the following day. This is, I believe, the first instance of the hobby being 

 found so far north as the county of Northumberland. — H. B. Tristram; Ferry Hill, 

 Castle Eden, June 18, 1859. 



Variety of the Common Buzzard. — I have in my possession a very beautiful variety 

 of the common buzzard, which was trapped at Lynmouth, some time this spring. 

 This singular variety is nearly a pure white all over, the back of the head, wings, 

 scapulars and upper tail-coverts beiug narrowly barred with wood-brown. The thigh- 

 coverts are a pale buff. The bird is a female, and when trapped was in a strong and 

 healthy condition. — Murray A. Mathews ; Merton College, Oxford, June 8, 1859. 



Occurrence of the Woodchat Shrike and Ortolan Bunting in Norfolk and Suffolk. — 

 On the 29th of April a male woodchat was shot at Yarmouth : this bird had very 

 nearly completed its spring moult, but from the appearance of the old feathers still 

 remaining in the tail, had probably but just attained its adult plumage: the chesnut 

 patch on the back of the neck and the tints of the back and wings were somewhat 

 lighter than in some older specimens. On the 2nd of May another, also, I believe, an 

 adult male, was obtained at Lound, near Lowestoft, in the adjoining county of Suffolk. 

 The woodchat is a rare visitant to this eastern district, not more than one or two 

 examples having been previously met with. A still greater rarity, in the shape of an 

 adult male ortolan bunting, was shot at Lowestoft, on the 5th of May. It is doubtful 

 if this species has ever been observed in Norfolk. — //. Stevenson ; Norwich, June 15, 

 1859. 



Unusual number of Hoopoes and Ring Ouzels in Norfolk and Suffolk. — Of late 

 years the hoopoe has undoubtedly become not only a more regular, but a more 



