Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/132

104 amount of black diminished in the moult; these black-chinned Bramblings are not a very uncommon variety, and are the exact reverse of the white-chinned Goldfinch, which is sometimes called a "cheverel," and was described by Madarász as Carduelis albogularis. The black-chinned Brambling does not seem to have yet received a name in science.

4th.— A pair of Garganey Teal seen (A. Nudd). Now uncommon anywhere, and practically extinct in West Norfolk.

8th.— Another pair of Garganey (Bird), evidently going to nest, if they had not already begun on a rush-tuft.

11th.— A Sheldrake seen on Saham Mere, which is twenty-four miles from the sea (A. W. Partridge).

12th.— First Ruff; three Water-Rails' nests (Bird).

16th.—Hoopoe at Morston (R. Wood). Two Spoonbills on Breydon (B. Dye).

18th.—A few Gadwall, and one Tufted Duck only at the meres on Wretham Heath, where, owing to the drought, there is very little water (T. Southwell).

19th.—First Grasshopper Warblers heard (Bird).

3rd.—Mr. Patterson saw an Iceland Gull being mobbed by other Gulls at Breydon "Knowle." Thirteen Whimbrel at Hickling; and immediately afterwards two Garganeys (Bird).

8th.—Six or seven Spoonbills to be seen on Breydon muds, where they allowed themselves to be viewed by several people; and again, a few days afterwards, by Mr. Patterson and Mr. Dye, with the Iceland [or Glaucous] Gull mentioned above; and nineteen Bar-tailed Godwits. These are the same Spoonbills alluded to by Mr. Farman (Zool. 1899, p. 366), and three of them afterwards moved on to Cley (Pashley); while the Gull moved its quarters to Horsey Broad, where it was seen by Mr. Bird. Mr. Patterson has already described the manner in which these Spoonbills walked (Zool. 1899, p. 270); and, again, it was his opinion that Spoonbills are incapable of uttering any sound. I was quite of the same opinion until a short time ago, when two Spoonbills in confinement, which had been dumb for a long time, suddenly, under the