8th.—Convolvulus Hawk Moth caught on 'The Cockle' light-vessel (forwarded). Wind S.S.W. Several Tree Pipits among the sand-hills (Gunn), where an adult Bluethroat in change of plumage was killed. A flock of nine Ruffs seen at 'The Eye' (Pashley), and two more shot at Lynn (R. Clarke). I think it may be considered that with such waders as Ruffs, Dunlins, Plovers, Knots, and Turnstones the proportion of adults to young is about one to nine in September and October at Cley. The young birds lead the way, while the old ones may be the same which, according to Collett, summer at the most southern point of Norway (Journ. für Orn., July 1881), from whence they would soon flit across to Cley; but this is a subject for enquiry, though not an easy one to pursue.
9th.—S.S.W., rather strong. An Aquatic Warbler, Acrocephalus aquaticus, Gm., in immature but very good plumage, with the lines on the back more pronounced than the streak of buff on the crown, shot at the foot of Blakeney sand-hills by Mr. Gunn, was a male, and contained the remains of earwigs and a beetle, no doubt foraged in the Chenopodium bushes. It is the fifth for England, and is a good deal like one shot by Mr. Edward Hart, at Christchurch in Hampshire. Mr. Gunn saw a few Sedge Warblers at the same time, with which it had probably come from Denmark, where Saunders says it breeds sparingly. Thirteen Chaffinches, a large Hawk, and a Death's-head Moth passed the 'Dudgeon' floating light. The caterpillars of the Death's-head had been more plentiful than for many years, and I see in the 'Field' that they were similarly abundant in Yorkshire.[1]
11th.—Honey Buzzard shot at Snettisham (R. Clarke).
14th.—W. A White-headed Honey Buzzard, with chest and under parts of the same colour, and dappled wings, shot at Southrepps. This beautiful albinistic variety has occurred two or three times before in Norfolk, and one of them, just like the present example, is figured in Dresser's 'Birds of Europe.' About this time a sprinkling of Kestrels came in from the sea, going in nearly every case against the wind, some of them taking exactly the same line their predecessors followed in other years.
- ↑ Also elsewhere, and similarly reported from Berks, Brecknock, Cambridge, Cheshire, Devon, Essex, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, &c. (Ed.)
