Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/129

Rh no longer breed in Yorkshire, and may perhaps come to us from Norway.

14th.—A young male Iceland Gull on Breydon, so tame that Mr. Patterson crept to within ten paces; and of course next day it found its way to Mr. Lowne's shop. Length, 21·5; culmen, 1·3; tarsus, 1·8. I have not seen it, but these measurements are sufficient to establish its identity; and it is the fifth for our county, the Glaucous Gull being much commoner.

18th.—One of the chestnut-coloured Partridges killed at Bylaugh, near Dereham, by Col. Custance. These birds are quite different in colour from the melanistic race which was met with at Campsea Ash in 1891 and 1892, with which they cannot be confounded. They are simply an erythrism, an abnormal replacement of the natural colour by red, as has occasionally happened in the Bullfinch, House-Sparrow, Green Woodpecker, Rose-coloured Pastor, &c. This month a variety of the Hooded Crow speckled with white was taken near Thetford.

19th.—Black-throated Diver shot at the mouth of the river Bure by Mr. E.C. Saunders, who describes it as largely spotted on the wings, and becoming barred with white on its back.

26th.—A hundred Tufted Ducks and several small lots of Gadwall and Wigeon seen on the Ouse near Thetford (T. Southwell). Many Wild Ducks already paired.

31st.—Thousands of Lapwings at Hickling (S. Harmer).

1st.—A flock of about fifty Siskins by our river searching the alders in their usual engaging way.

2nd.—Mr. Caton Haigh met with seven Shore-Larks at Cley, soon after with a flock of about thirty, and farther along the coast saw other small parties and single birds; also twenty Chaffinches on the shingle, which he presumed had just come over, though we do not expect them after Christmas.

9th.—Coots and Redshanks paired (Bird).

11th.—The weather is now extraordinarily mild for the time of year, and the large flights of Wood-Pigeons which were in all our woods in January have gone, probably northwards. Lambs are becoming general, and the young wheat, which is two inches above the ground, is about safe from the depredations of Rooks,