LATHYRUS PALUSTRIS, LIN. For so scarce a plant it is worth while confirming the old records in Mr. Trimmer's book: "Ranaugh; W. A. Marshes at Horning; F.B." Ranaugh," of course, is the perhaps, more correct as agreeing

old name for Ranworth; and,

with the local pronunciation.

66

* RUBUS ROSACEUS, WEIHE. Copse in Sprowston.

* RUBUS SPRENGELII, WEIHE, var. BORRERI, SALTER. Hedgerow, Sprowston.

ROSA MICRANTHA, SMITH. Hedgerow, Sprowston. Only known previously in Norfolk near Ormesby, where recently found by Mr. A. Bennett.

*ROSA RUBIGINOSA, LIN., var. COMOSA, RIP. Hedgerow in Sprowston; a form which scarcely seems to me to differ from the var. sylvicola, Deseg., of the London Catalogue.

ROSA CANINA, LIN., form LUTETIANA, LEMAN. The commonest form in most places, but not separately recorded for Norfolk.

* ROSA CANINA, LIN., var. DUMALIS, BECHST. Hedges, Sprowston and Newton St. Faiths.

ROSA CANINA, LIN., var. Crostwick.

ARVATICA, BAKER. Sprowston,

* ROSA CANINA, LIN., var. FRONDOSA, STEVEN. Two forms; one approaching R. urbica, in hedges, Sprowston and Earlham; another (in the direction of R. tomentella, but declared by Mr. J. G. Baker to be nearer R. frondosa) having very small fruit, and rather long-pointed leaves, hedges in Sprowston.

* ROSA CANINA, LIN., var. VERTICILLACANTHA, MERAT. Hedges, Sprowston and Beeston St. Andrew. This variety also occurred in Sprowston with erect persistent sepals, and was pronounced by Mr. J. G. Baker to be a "very interesting form."

* ROSA CANINA, LIN., var. CORIIFOLIA, FRIES. A very distinct north country form; not hitherto recorded, I believe, further south than Warwickshire. Only one large bush as yet discovered: Sprowston.

* EPILOBIUM PARVIFLORUM, SCHREB, var. RIVULARE, WAHL. Hellesdon, riverside. This variety is given in Hooker's 'Student's Flora,' and was admitted in the sixth edition of the London Catalogue.

[ENOTHERA ODORATA, JACQ.] Self-sown, and running wild in a newly enclosed cemetery and unused part of it: Yarmouth, 1880.

GNAPHALIUM LUTEO-ALBUM, LIN. Self-sown, if not indigenous, over a large piece of uncultivated land not far from the sea near Wells.

TARAXACUM OFFICINALE, WIGGERS, var. ERYTHROSPERMUM, ANDRZ. Cultivated ground: Sprowston.

VERONICA VERNA, LIN. Abundant on a heath to the south of Thetford, where also Scleranthus perennis, Lin., more sparingly.

* POLYGONUM AVICULARE, LIN., var. ARENASTRUM, BOREAU Sandy roadside: Hellesdon.

POLYGONUM MITE, SCHRANK. Peaty ditch, Newton St. Faiths. New to "Norfolk E." of Mr. H. C. Watson's two divisions. * BETULA ALBA, LIN., var. VERRUCOSA, EUR. Moist copse, Sprowston.

* BETULA ALBA, LIN., var. PUBESCENS. Moist copse, Sprowston. ALLIUM VINEALE, LIN. Hedge-bank, Sprowston. "Near Norwich" is quoted by Mr. Trimmer as a former record. The station is now more defined.

CAREX PARADOXA, WILLD. This rare Carex was in good quantity last summer at the old station, Hoveton. What is more interesting, I found it also in the Ranworth marshes, more sparingly, and in younger plants; the seed may have well been carried down by floods.

PHLEUM NODOSUM, LIN. A large form of this grass was growing in a Clover field, in Sprowston, during the summer of 1880; and I found a smaller form of the same species (or variety) in a heathy pasture near Thetford, the same summer.

PHLEUM BOEHMERI, SCHRAD. In fair quantity on a heathy pasture south of Thetford; and also in the parish of East Harling in small quantity.

KOELERIA CRISTATA, PERS. Near Thetford; fills up "sc" in Mr. Geldart's list; as does also

AVENA PRATENSIS, LIN. Near Thetford.

*

POA PRATENSIS, LIN., var. STRIGOSA, GAUD. This small form is plentiful in the sand just north of Yarmouth.

XVII.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS.

GREY SEAL (Halichoerus gryphus) ON BREYDON.-At our Meeting in March, 1882, I was able to record the occurrence of an adult female Grey Seal and her young one, in the Wash, near Lynn (antea p. 415), which I then stated was the first known occurrence of this species on the Norfolk coast. A second instance has since come under my notice; and I am inclined to think that other individuals of the same species have been seen or killed, which I have not been successful in tracing.

On the 28th November, 1882, a young female Grey Seal was shot on Breydon, which I saw two days after in the flesh at Yarmouth. It measured 4 ft. 3 in. in length to the end of the hind flipper, tail 4 inches, and weighed 58 lbs: The belly and throat were nearly white, the upper parts steel-grey, irregularly splashed with dark-brown blotches very sparingly about the sides and back, but more conspicuously on the head and back of the neck. The claws of the fore flippers were very long, being 1 in. (in the old female previously recorded the corresponding claw was 2 in. long, and in the young one 12 in.); the claws of the hind flippers were also long, but weak and flattened. Mr. W. W. Spelman, of Yarmouth, for whom the Seal has been preserved, very kindly allowed me to bring away the head, and I have prepared the cranium, which is now in the Norwich Museum.-T. SOUTHWELL.

NOTES ON THE CASPIAN TERN. As some uncertainty shrouds the few specimens of this very fine Tern which have been killed in England, the following list of Norfolk specimens, drawn up with the assistance of Mr. Henry Stevenson, and from various sources, will probably be acceptable.

ON A SUPPOSED OCCURRENCE OF ARDEA CANDIDISSIMA IN NORFOLK. The principal authority for including the Little Egret as a Norfolk bird, is a supposed specimen said to have been killed at Sparham more than fifty years ago. Being engaged on a catalogue of Norfolk birds, I took a recent opportunity of being in London to run down to Twickenham, where the specimen is preserved; and through the kindness of its owner, Dr. H. W. Diamond, I was allowed to see it, and compare it with an Egyptian skin brought for the purpose. A careful examination showed immediately that the Sparham bird was not the European Little Egret (Ardea garzetta). It differed from that species in having many occipital plumesquite a bunch of them-about three inches long, and in other minor points. I concluded it might be the Asiatic species; but

* Stevenson's 'Birds of Norfolk,' vol. ii. p. 150.

subsequent search in the library of the Zoological Society in London, coupled with an inspection of the series of Egrets in Mr. Osbert Salvin's collection, showed that in the Sparham bird we had an adult specimen of the American Ardea candidissima. Whether it was really killed in Norfolk I must leave. It has all the appearance of not having been set up at the time of being skinned, the supple neck, and other signs, which a bird mounted from the flesh generally have, being all wanting. Dr. Diamond, however, informs me that it was decaying when it reached him. It was stuffed by a birdstuffer named Hobcroft, or Hadcroft, of New Compton Street, Soho, who went to America and died there. It is inscribed on the back of the case:-"Shot by Roger Stoughton near Sparham, Norfolk, 1831."-J. H. GURNEY, JUN.

NOTES ON THE WEATHER OF 1882-83.-The Rev. H. P. Marsham has been good enough to furnish me with the following notes on the weather of 1882 and the early part of 1883, which, as the seasons have been very exceptional, may be worth recording. The observations have all been made at Rippon Hall, near Norwich.

1882. Barometer at 9 a.m.-Highest on January 17th, 30.1 in.; lowest March 1st, 28.6 in. Total rainfall of the year, which fell on 154 days, 28.29. In the month of November rain fell on 22 days. Most rain fell in October; viz., 5.43 in. The greatest rainfall took place on the 22nd October; viz., 1·45 in. in 24 hours, which is the heaviest fall Mr. Marsham has ever registered in so short a period. The total rainfall for the year is about 11⁄2 in. in excess of the average of the past 11 years. During the year the wind (at 9 a.m.) has been in the S., S. W., or W. on 184 days; N.W. or N. for 86 days; S., S.E., or N.E. for 95 days. In the year 1782 the wind was in the like quarters for 143, 109, and 112 days respectively.

The rainfall for the exceptionally wet month of October, 1882, as given in Mr. Du Port's return, was least in Norfolk at Helvergate, viz., 4:38 in., and greatest at Thorpe (Norwich), viz., 7.02 in.

1883. Mr. Marsham also sends the following comparison of the weather in the month of March in the two years 1845 and 1883, by