GO 
description of the plumage of this bird, I have no doubt that 
it was an adult male, and judging from the locality in which 
it was found close to the sea — it was most i^robably the victim of 
a random shot, and died almost as soon as it reached the shore. 
Crus cinerea. Crane . — The spring of 1869 has been remarkable 
from the fact of several of these fine birds — usually considered 
very rare visitants to our coast — having appeared in Norfolk, and 
other parts of Great Britain. 
About the 7th of May, a young male, which was seen in 
company with another, was shot in a barley layer on Mr. B. 
Hume s estate, near the borders of the two parishes of West 
Somerton and Winterton. On the 25th of May a second was 
shot at and winged in a Salt Marsh at Tlromham near Lynn, 
and was kept in confinement till the 5th of June, when it died. 
Again on the 4th of June, another young male was shot at South 
Pickenham, near Swaftham, which, with four, stated by a cor- 
respondent in the “Field” to have been seen at Burnham, of 
which two were said to have been killed, were probably members 
of one flock dispersed o.ver that part of the county. The 
occurrence of so many examples of this bird in one season is the 
more remarkable, inasmuch as not more than four are known to 
have been obtained in Norfolk during the last half century. In 
Sir Thomas Browne’s time the Crane is said to have appeared often 
in hard winters. 
Mortality amongst Swallows and Martins. — The unusually 
low rate of temperature which prevailed towards the end of May, 
appears to have caused the death of a very considerable number of 
Swallows, Martins, and Swifts, throughout the county, the 
particulars of which have reached me from various quarters. 
Most of them appear to have been found dead on Saturday, the 
29th of May, having been seen for two or three days previously 
in a very feeble and emaciated state. Hundreds appear to have 
died about this time throughout the county. Indirectly the 
extreme and unseasonable cold, was, no doubt, tlie cause, but on 
examining the register kept in the rooms of the Literary Institution 
in this city, I find that between the 24th and 29th of IMay, the 
temperature varied at night between 48 and 40 degrees, the lowest 
being on the Saturday, at vdiicli time the chief portion of the 
