Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/148

124 is strictly a pairing song, being no doubt provoked by the shooting, as Pheasants respond to thunder, or a Turkey-cock to a whistle. Gould, and previously Latham, both allude to certain dilatable membranes in the throat of the Bittern, which it is supposed produce this sound; but I have searched for them without finding anything more than one would expect to see in the neck of a Heron.

28th.—It may be remembered that in January, 1895, Little Auks were scattered broadcast along the sea-lines of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk, while three hundred dead ones were counted in the latter county alone. A repetition of this mortality took place during the months of February and March, 1900 (six weeks later than five years ago), when quite as many or more were picked up in Norfolk, but fewer were found inland; and the incursion was not so marked in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (cf. 'Naturalist,' p. 140) as in 1895, although I learn from Mr. W.A. Dutt that many were picked up around Lowestoft, in Suffolk. The brunt of the incursion expended itself in a space of about fifty miles extending from the Wash to Lowestoft, and reaching its maximum at Cley, where the first intimation Mr. Pashley received of this important movement was from two being shot and one picked up on Feb. 26th. Between that date and March 14th they were brought to his house by many persons, even sometimes in baskets, and many when picked up were still alive. One man told Mr. Pashley that he found thirty-two between the rocket-post at Salthouse and Harbour Point. Others were picked up at more inland localities, such as Hempstead, Thornage, Bayfield, and Glanford. On March 20th, 21st, and 22nd the wind became easterly, and he was told that about thirty more Little Auks and seven Puffins had been counted on the shore. All this week, writes Mr. Pashley, there were frosts and hailstorms, and on March 27th, the wind then being north-west, more Puffins and Razorbills were washed up, together with the fossilized core of a large horn. In such weather it was obvious that the Alcidæ could obtain no fish, which descend to greater depths when the sea is troubled. The first example at Yarmouth was notified by Mr. Dye on Feb. 24th, an earlier date than for Cley, and thirty more soon afterwards, chiefly taken at Caistor and Winterton, by Mr. Patterson, who handled two recently dead on April 4th.