MB. F, DAY ON NORFOLK EEIA 
333 
but then it is its pleasure to be so. The flocks which pass Cromer 
in tho autumn never stop. 
Of course a gale may ha so tremendous that they cannot 
live against it, though Gulls can ride out an amount of wind which 
would be fatal to almost any other bird. In this case birds of all 
kinds, with a sense of impending danger, tly before the cyclone 
which the fastest of them cannot outstrip. Mr. A. C. Chapman 
describes a scene of this kind on October 14th, 1881, on tho 
Northumbrian coast (‘The Naturalist,’ February, 1886). For 
three hours he was clinging to a capsized punt, and for ten 
minutes preceding the storm Gulls and other sea-birds hurried 
southwards at tremendous si)eed. He says, “Tho straggling Gulls 
and Oystorcatchers when overtaken by it simply flopped down 
into tho mud and instantly crouching down headed windwards” 
{I.C., p. 41). 
Though tho after result has been occasionally witne.s.sed, e.y,, in 
tho case of the Fomatortine Skua in 1879 and Little Gull in 1870, 
it is not often that an ornithologist has seen the effect of such a 
gale at its commencement. 
VI 1. 
EEMARKS ON SOME NORFOLK EELS. 
By Francis Day, C.I.K, F.L.S., F.Z.S, 
Read ^oth November, i8S6. 
[Tho existence in the Norfolk waters of several very marked 
varieties of fresh-water Eels has long been known, and by some 
authorities they have been regarded as distinct species. To our Eel- 
catchers they arc j^rfectly familiar, and are distinguished as the 
“ Silver Belly” (which is seldom or never taken by bait, but on its 
passage to the sea is intercepted by the Eel-sets, and captured 
in great numbers); and the “Gloat,” “Glut,” or broad-nosed Eel, 
