775 
where, as so often happens in April, abnormal heat is suddenly 
succeeded by frost and snow — Swallows and Martins, on their first 
arrival (species most susceptible of atmospheric influences), dying 
by dozens in the more exposed parts of this county from the 
combined effects of cold and starvation; the paucity of insect food 
by day rendering them still more sensitive to the frosts at night. 
Till our resident birds, t,hen, open up telegraphic communication 
with their migratory cousins in the far south, to hasten or retard 
their movements in accordance with our climatal variations, I shall 
probably hold my present views on this subject ; but the abnormally 
early Cuckoo or Nightingale, as recorded in the ‘Times’ or local 
journals, will never cease till the desire of some to see their names 
in print shall cease also. Such an announcement is rare indeed 
under an anonymous signature ; whilst I am wicked enough to 
believe, whether the statement be reliable or not, that, in a large 
majority of cases, the chronicler himself attaches infinitely more 
importance to the fact that ho heard it, than that the bird was 
there to bo heard. 
A few Hooded Crows still remained at Xorthrepps into the 
second week of April ; and a Woodcock was flushctl there on 
the 10th. A large number of Pied Wagtails appeared at Yarmouth 
about the latter date ; and early in the month a Water Rail was 
caught alive on board a smack, just off the coast. During the 
first week also, the puzzling occurrence of French Partridges, 
seen to come in from the sea with a strong easterly wind, and, 
as usual, in an exhausted state on arrival, was observed on the 
beach at Yarmouth ; and I have notes of a single bird, seen to fly 
in from the sea, at Lowestoft in iMarch, and, in the same month, 
a small covey of this species arrived on the sands at Cromer, in 
like manner, and crept into any holes they could find for shelter. 
Being birds of rapid but not sustained powers of flight, as is well 
known to sportsmen, it is not easy to conjecture, if continental 
immigrants, from whence they come ; and, as we have no record 
whatever of this Partridge being found in the Eastern Counties 
till eggs were imported at the close of the last century, and 
Sir Tliomas Browne wrote just two hundred years ago, it was not 
seen in Norfolk, I still incline to the theory advanced in the 
‘ Birds of Norfolk ’ that those apparent visitants are but residents, 
after all, seized with a restless migratory impulse in spring, and 
