Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/224

1390 made it appear, that had they been unmolested they would have remained through the summer for the purpose of nesting.

To the improved system of draining, and the general use of the gun, combined with the indiscriminate system of egg-collecting which has been in some parts long carried on, may be attributed the great de- crease in the number of water-birds which breed in Norfolk. The same causes have, although in a comparatively trifling degree, lessened the number of winter migrants ; but the decrease of the latter is apt to be exaggerated, from the circumstance, that the number of fowl taken in the decoys is much smaller than formerly ; which may be more cor- rectly attributed to the noise and additional destruction caused by the increased use of fire-arms, than to any great diminution in the actual number of the birds which visit the district at that season.

The punctuality with which many of the birds of double passage, whether of regular or only of occasional appearance, arrive on the coast, both in spring and autumn, is remarkable.

Being hastened on in the former season, as well by the migratory impulse, as by the near approach of the season of reproduction, they then remain with us no longer than is sufficient to insure the supply of food and rest necessary to enable them to continue their journey across the sea. Many species are also observed at that season espe- cially, to pursue a more direct course to their destination, by crossing the land, instead of, as in autumn, following the line of coast.

These overland flights are principally, in fact almost exclusively, nocturnal ; in illustration of which, it may be mentioned that a pochard duck has been known to dash at night through the window of an upper room in the middle of the city of Norwich, in which there chanced to be a light. It also frequently happens that short-eared owls, snipes, golden plovers, and other birds are killed in these noctur- nal movements, by flying against the wires of the electric telegraph on the line of railway, as well near Norwich, as in the vicinity of the coast ; and we once saw a bird of the latter kind which w^as found alive near the railway in the morning, with one wing completely am- putated close to the body, by the same means.

In autumn, or rather at the end of summer, the earliest visiters are the most punctual in their appearance ; they come at first in small flocks, consisting chiefly of the young of the previous spring ; and we suspect from their tameness, and the fatigue which they exhibit on their first arrival that they are birds which have crossed the sea, and that the later arrivals are those which come down the coast. We have