Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/158

130 Spoonbill come in from the south, wheel round once, and then pitch. Though unmolested, and having the whole broad almost to itself, with the exception of one Grey Plover and a few Gulls and Herons, it only remained twelve hours, being last seen feeding by itself about 7.30 p.m. About the same time one, possibly the same, was seen at Cley. On the same day two Roseate Terns, both females, which may possibly have had eggs, as they have nested in Norfolk once, and not many years ago, were shot on Blakeney Bar by a lad whose youth is the only excuse for his having broken the law in killing them. These birds had coal-black heads and orange-vermilion legs, but the evanescent pink of the under parts had almost faded when they were sent to Norwich.

28th.—Grey Crow near Haddiscoe (L. Farman).

29th.—To-day the Scarlet Grosbeak, believed, if there was no miscarriage of justice (see Zool. 1893, p. 150), to have been clap-netted in South Norfolk, died, after living nearly four years. It was always a very tame bird, using its wings very little, and fond of raising the feathers on the crown of the head into an approach to a crest, as it sat sedately on its perch of wood. Gätke particularly remarks on the tameness of this species.

13th.—Little Bittern heard at Saham Toney, where its grunting note is known.

14th.—A Golden Plover seen on the Bure by Mr. Patterson at this unusual date.

15th.—Spoonbill seen on Breydon (Patterson).

6th.—Seven Pochards seen at Hickling (M. Bird).

10th.—A Green Sandpiper at Sprowston (R. Gurney), and the next day one in my garden at Keswick, and afterwards some at Potter Heigham and the mouth of the Glaven.

12th.—N.W. in the morning. A White- winged Tern shot on Breydon Broad. This bird, which was exhibited at the Naturalists' meeting, and is now in the collection of Mr. B. Dye, is an old male passing from its summer to its winter plumage, the nape and occiput being mottled with black, and the grey feathers of the back blotched with new black ones. The