85 
in 1873, was remarked in Norfolk, as well as in more southern 
counties, attributable, I believe, entirely to the mildness of the 
weatlier, and a consequent supply of insect food, enabling the old 
birds to rear their late hatched young ones. These, in most 
winters, are deserted when the frosts commence, and are left to die 
in their nests. On the 3rd of November, some twenty or thirty 
hou.so martins were seen flying about Cromer church, and smaller 
numbers later in the month. At the same place, also, a few house 
martins were seen by Mr. Southwell as late as the 5th of December. 
A sand-martin was seen by Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun. on the river, 
near Ihickenham, on the 21st of November. 
Snow Bunting {Plectrophanes nivalis.) These winter migrants, 
more commonly abundant in severe than in mild wdnters, were 
remarkably numerous throughout the months of November and 
December, on all parts of our ea.storn coast. The extreme mildness 
of the season, and an abundance, everywhere, of food, no doubt 
detained on our shores such flocks, as in ordinary winters pass on, 
in advance of snow and frost, to more southern quarters. At 
Yarmouth, I am informed, they were so plentiful, that at one time 
the birdcatchers were netting them, for trap shooting, in place of 
sparrows. At Lowestoft, about the middle of November, I saw a 
flock of more than a hundred, daily, on the Pakefleld cliffs, and 
many passing inland have been killed on the margins of the broads, 
as at Ludham, where several were shot from the reed beds, and a 
few were also netted close to this city. 
