Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/157

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On the 3rd very many Common Terns, as well as Lesser and Black Terns, were seen by Alfred Nudd on Hickling Broad, all heading against the high wind (Bird); and the next day, and also on the 8th, the wind being north-west and again very strong, Mr. Jary, the watcher on Breydon Broad, saw the Terns there, and what he thought were two Little Gulls. But the Terns were not the only birds which felt this cold wind. As is well known. Swifts are very sensitive to cold, and one of these birds, after flying some time round my house, entered a bedroom. Six more did the same at Postwick (G. Cross), and some House-Martins were scarcely able to fly. It seems they were affected in the same way in Norwich, for Mr. Southwell writes:—"On the 3rd of August the temperature fell rapidly, and a south-west gale set in, which was very destructive. On the morning of the 4th Chapel-field [gardens in Norwich] had the appearance of being wrecked, .... Under the shelter of the main avenue there were twenty or thirty Swifts flying rapidly backwards and forwards quite close to the grass, evidently seeking shelter and searching for food. Large numbers of Sparrows and Robins were on the grass, and the old birds were feeding their young. It was really a most curious sight." This weather lasted until the 9th, and on the 14th the wind was in the east. Swifts were benumbed by the cold in 1859 and 1881, just as in the present summer, and it is evident they are very susceptible to it.

During this month Corn-Crakes were again rather abundant, nine being flushed in one harvest-field at Sidestrand, and many others seen near the coast (cf. Zool. 1900, p. 108). Prior to last year these birds had been very scarce. Spotted Rails have also become very rare, but both these birds are largely eaten in the South of Europe, a fact which may account for their diminishing numbers, as it most certainly does in the case of the Quail. At the end of the month, when the weather had improved, fifteen Quail's eggs† were found in cutting wheat at Cawston (W.H. Bidwell), a good clutch and a late date. Although on different occasions several hundreds of Quails have been turned out in Norfolk, no effect has apparently been produced, and the birds keep on getting rarer; the last nest reported was at Fakenham,