Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/146

122 as local breeders, extinct. Forty years ago the Broad district could not have held less than a dozen Harriers' nests, but whether the Hen-Harrier bred there is uncertain.

12th.—Spoonbill at Swimcoots (Nudd), probably one of three which left the Blakenny muds on that day (Pashley).

22nd.—Green Sandpiper seen at Hickling by Mr. Bird.

23rd.—A very dark immature Stock-Dove—almost a variety—caught on Snetterton Heath, probably bred in a rabbit-hole; and a Wood-Lark seen at the same time. Although, at Keswick, Stock-Doves have the accommodation of tubs for nesting, a pair this summer chose an uninhabited dovecote in a very frequented place.

25th.—Of thirty netted adult cock House-Sparrows, twelve had the chest-feathers, which are ordinarily black, strongly tinted with chestnut-colour, a phase of plumage not accounted for in any work on British birds. Perhaps the Passer rufipectus of Buonaparte.

9th.—Green Sandpiper at Intwood, a bird whose presence in summer evidently does not imply breeding.

14th.—A Green-backed Porphyrio, seen in Potter Heigham Sounds by Mr. H.E. Harris, was shot a few days afterwards on Barton Broad, and sent to Norwich. Sutton and Barton Broads are very much "grown up" now, and their dense reedbeds resemble the lagoons of Egypt, where this noble bird—"Dic Sultani" of the natives—used to be so common that thirty could be killed in a day. From Egypt I expect the supplies imported to this country by Cross, Jamrach, and Castang of late years come.

The first week in August brought bands of Crossbills from over the sea, which were seen simultaneously in four or five seaside parishes, and immediately afterwards in various places a little farther inland, as from Sandringham (R. Clarke) southwards, and as far inland as Horningtoft. A medlar tree in Canon Venables' garden at Burgh was covered with them, from which they turned their attentions to a bullace and apple trees, and even gooseberry bushes and cherry trees were visited (A. Patter-