66 
supposing even that a few — mingling with the large flocks of 
common and black-headed gulls, which in autumn and winter 
frequent our shoals, sandbars, and tidal estuaries — niay have 
annually visited us, stiU their appearance in February, 1870, both 
here and in more northern counties in such extraordinary numbers, 
is a fact worthy of special record. 
In the Zoologist for March, 1870, (p. 2056), I stated that a 
little gull, in immature plumage, had been sent me from Salthouse 
on the 23rd of October, 1869, and that another, in similar 
plumage had been also killed at Blakeney on the 30 th of the same 
month ; both of these, as is commonly the case, were solitary 
specimens, and no more appear to have been remarked until about 
the end of December or beginning of January, when another 
immature bird was shot somewhat inland at Gooderstone, near 
Fakenham, and preserved by Mr. Ellis, a birdstuflfer, at Swaffham. 
The weather up to that time had been mild and open, but from 
the middle to the end of January we experienced severe frost and 
snow. With the 1st of February, however, came a few warm 
sunny days like a foretaste of spring, and then again, on the 6th, 
the wind veered to the N.E. with heavy snow storms on the 8th 
and 9th, followed on the night of the 12th and throughout the 
following day by a biting wind frost, more severe during the short 
time it lasted than had been experienced for many years.* On 
the 13th the wind from the FT.N.E. blew a heavy gale, drifting 
the frozen snow like sand, in places sweeping it clean off the roads, 
and in others heaping it up above the banks and hedges. 
It was just at this time, storm-driven and suffering from the 
severity of the weather, that the main body of little gulls 
appeared on our coast, and of the numbers which fell victims to 
the gunners between Lynn and Yarmouth, the larger portion were 
procured between the 12th and Uth, and others during a period 
extending from the 10th to the 28th. 
On the nth, as stated by Dr. Lowe, in the Field of February 
26th, a flock of at least a dozen were seen in Lynn Harbour, 
sheltering from the gale outside, of which several are, no doubt, 
included in the following list, supplied me by Mr. Wilson, bird 
* Mr. Cordeaux, in the “ Zoologist” for 1870, remarks “the 12tli, 13th, 
and 14th of February were the rougliest days I ever recollect on our Lincoln- 
shire marshes.” 
