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liiiilway, Mr. Colo watched the flight of several Poinatorhiiics 
Hying, as ordinary Gulls are wont to do, over that extreme end of 
Droydon water ; and specimens had also been shot from the 
Esplanade facing the sea. The last seen by Mr. Cresswell at Lynn 
was on the 2nd of November, and on the 4th an immature bird 
was shot near Rockland Broad, on the Yare, in company with 
others, no doubt part of the same Hock said to have been seen as 
far up the river as Surlingham, and even Thorpe, near Norwich. 
On the 13th of November I^lr. J. II. Gurney, jun., late in the 
afternoon, saw a (lock of twelve Skuas off Cromer Pier, Hying 
towards Blakeney, which appeared to be whole coloured dark birds, 
and from their size, Buflon’s or Itichardson’s ; but though visiting 
Blakeney the next day he saw nothing of them. On the 25th, 
also, Mr. Richard Gurney saw n Hock of about twenty Skuas 
(apparently Richardson’s, in dark ])lumage) Hying low over a field 
at Overstrand, near Cromer. At \armouth, I was informed that 
stragglers were seen even later. 
Ihere is no record, to my knowledge, of any similar incursion of 
Skuas on the Norfolk coast, of cither the Pomatorhinc or any 
other species, and, except under the conditions I have already 
stated their migr.ation being arrested in the firet place by a super- 
abundance of food, and hxstly by the accident of excessive gales 
occurring at the same time, thus driving them inland, — we should, 
in all i)robability, have known no more of their transit this last 
autumn than in many other seasons, when, Avith a glut of Herrings, 
the \armouth sraacksmen have brought in various specimens of 
Skuas (shot from their decks or the lightships), chief of which, 
like the fish, have gone direct to the London markets, and some 
few into the hands of our local birdstuffers. As to one and all, 
therefore, of our British Skuas,. I must still consider that the words 
“ occasional autumnal visitants ” sufficiently indicate their habits, 
as regards our own coast; young birds of each species* pre- 
dominating amongst the specimens procured from time to time, 
* Mr. Lubbock in his ‘ Fauna of Norfolk,’ alliuling to tlie preponderance 
of immature examples amongst tlic Skuas on our coast, remarks “ Probabl v 
there arc the same reiisons for the migration of these younger birds, which 
I noticed before in speaking of Lagles and Hawks, — the old ones drive them 
away. Indeed, in activity and ferocity, these gidls arc not unlike wliat are 
called raj)(fciotis biids.” 
