FAUNA AND FLORA OF NORFOLK : BIRDS. 
503 
Barred Warbler, Gull-billed Tern, Icterine Warbler, Bluethroat, 
Aquatic Warbler, Sabine’s Gull, Great-spotted Cuckoo, Pallas’s 
Warbler, Black-breasted Dipper, and Bed-breasted Flycatcher followed 
each other, to quote .Mr. Gurney’s report (Zool. 1898, p. 106), “in 
bewildering succession ; ” nor were our neighbours at the mouth 
of the Humber less fortunate. In addition to many rarities, the 
months of September and October in that year produced three new 
species with us, and one ( Phylluscopus virid antis) at the Humber 
mouth. 
Mr. Preston, in the valuable Meteorological Notes which he 
contributes annually to our ‘Transactions,’ supplies us with the 
key to this remarkable state of things; he describes the weather 
in the month of September, 1896, as stormy, wet, and unsettled 
throughout, much cloud, the rainfall was about an inch above 
the average, and fell on twenty-one days, with great barometric 
variation — the bad weather culminated in the week ending the 27th, 
the prevailing winds were S. to W. with a mean pressure of 3.7. 
October was a damp depressing month, much cloud, rain fell on 
twenty-four days although not heavily, and the prevailing winds 
were S. W. with a force of 3.1. — a long period of cyclonic dis- 
turbance. Those who have carefully studied Mr. Eagle Clark's 
exhaustive digest of the Beports of the British Association 
Committee, will recognise, in the meteorological conditions just 
described, the ideal combination of atmospheric effects calculated 
to produce such a manifestation of the phenomena of what he 
styles the “East to West” autumnal immigration as was witnessed 
in the autumn of 1896. One of the present writers has had 
occasion to remark elsewhere (‘ Natural Science,’ p. 248), when 
treating of this subject: “There is no more astonishing feature 
in the whole range of this wonderful subject than the arrival on 
our East coast of birds whose natural habitat is Eastern Asia, 
and which must have crossed the whole of Europe, finishing with 
the passage of the North Sea. Some of these, too, are delicate 
warblers of the smallest size, and arrive here after British repre- 
sentatives of their kind have left us for the south.” Their departure 
from their summer home is undertaken when the prospects for 
the journey are fairly favourable, but they soon become subject 
to weather conditions of extreme complexity. Should fair weather 
favour them the usual flight takes place uninterruptedly, almost 
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