24 
in winter. The cranes are great devourers of acorns, and in the 
autumn lu'ove excellent eating. 
As regards the Great Bustard, Mr. Stevenson’s exhaustive 
description, in the Birds of Norfolk, records its haunts and habits 
in all parts of Europe, and leaves me nothing new to say about 
Spain, where it is still, and will long remain, an abundant sj^ecies : 
some further details of the localities it frequents will, however, be 
found in the Ibis and in the Field. On undulating and broken 
ground, on the verge of cultivation, the little bustard is very 
common, and the African houbara occasionally pays a visit to the 
Peninsula, as does also the cream-coloured courser. The thicknee 
is a resident, especially frequenting the stony river-beds, when, as 
is usually the case, during ten months of the year, they are devoid 
of water. In the marshes, which, however, are very dry ones, 
according to our idea of the word, the lively pratincole is a feature 
which soon obtrudes itself upon the stranger, for it is anything 
but a shy bird, being unmolested as useless for food. 
But my communication has already reached an unwarrantable 
length, and I must leave the waders and water-birds untouched. 
I suppose the influence of the unrivalled collection of Raptores in 
this Museum has proved too much for me, for that femily has 
certainly engrossed an undue amount of space in this paper j yet I 
can hardly regret this, for it is, after all, with that family that the 
ornithological fame of the .Norwich Museum is chiefly identified. 
II. 
ON VANESSA ANTIOPA. 
By C. G. Barrett. 
Read 2Jfh September, 1872. 
The sudden appearance in considerable numbers of that rare 
butterfly the Camberwell Beauty (Vanessa antiopa) in this county, 
as well as throughout tlie east and south-east of England, seems to 
call for some special notice. 
