Notes on Certain Birds Found in Norfolk — Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk by Sir Thomas Browne

Notes on Certain Birds Found in NorfolkH

[MSS. SLOAN. 1830. FOL. 5-19. AND 31.]

[The first four pages in the volume of Manuscript consist of two inserted letters from Merrett to Browne (see Appendix A.); these are on ordinary letter paper 6-1/4 inches by 7 inches. The notes commence on folio 5 and are continued to folio 19; one leaf, containing an account of the Roller (numbered 31), is bound up with the notes on the Fishes, &c., which are numbered consecutively with the Birds; the paper of the volume is foolscap, 11-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches, and written, with a few exceptions, which appear to be subsequent additions, on the right-hand opening only. There are four folios after the Birds, the first of which is blank; the others, numbered 20, 21, and 22, contain rough memoranda on the Birds and Fishes, the substance of which is embodied in the other notes; the Fishes commence on folio 23. There are many erasures, interlineations, and substituted words which indicate hasty writing, and the alterations are not in all cases complete, thus rendering the sense occasionally obscure; these emendations I have thought it best to preserve as indicating the author’s line of thought. In the foot-notes which follow I have endeavoured to identify the species treated of. This, notwithstanding the kind assistance of the friends whose help I gratefully acknowledge, I may not in all cases have successfully accomplished; the conclusions arrived at are occasionally only conjectural, and it may be that in some instances I have erred. Should such be the case I must plead in excuse the difficulty arising from vagueness of description, the frequent use of vernacular names which have long since become obsolete (see Note 22), and the imperfection of the record. This especially applies to the Marine Animals, and one of my correspondents rightly remarks that “the early accounts of marine beasts are so vague, and the figures (where referred to) so incomplete and often fanciful, that it is difficult even to make out the family, to say nothing of genera and species.” Any assistance or correction in this respect would be gladly received by me.]

[Fol. 5.] I willingly obey your comands 1 in setting down such birds fishes & other animals wch for many years I have observed in Norfolk.

Beside the ordinarie birds which keep constantly in the country many are discouerable both in winter & summer wch are of a migrant nature & exchange their seats according to the season.2 those wch come in the spring coming for the most part from the southward those wch come in the Autumn or winter from the northward. so that they are obserued to come in great flocks with a north east wind & to depart with a south west. nor to come [in struck out] only in flocks of one kind butt teals woodcocks felfars thrushes & small birds to come & light together. for the most part some hawkes & birds of pray attending them.

The great & noble kind of Agle calld Aquila Gesneri 3 I have not seen in this country but one I met with [with crossed out] in this country brought from ireland wch I [presented unto struck out] kept 2 yeares, feeding it with whelpes cattes ratts & the like. in all that while not giving it any water wch I afterwards presented unto the [colledge of physitians at London struck out] my worthy friend Dr Scarburgh.

of other sorts of Agles there are severall kinds especially of the Halyætus or fenne Agles some of 3 yards & a quarter from the extremitie of the wings. whereof one being taken aliue grewe so tame that it went about the yard feeding on fish redherrings flesh & any offells without the least trouble.

There is also a lesser sort of Agle called an ospray 4 wch houers about the fennes & broads & will dippe his [foot crossed out] claws & take up a fish oftimes for wch his foote is made of an extraordinarie roughnesse for the better fastening & holding of it & the like they will do unto cootes.

[Fol. 6.] Aldrovandus takes particular notice of the great number of Kites 5 about London & about the Thames. wee are not without them heare though not in such numbers. there are also the gray & bald Buzzard 6 [wch the all wth crossed out] of all wch the great number of broad waters & warrens makes no small number & more than in woodland counties.

Cranes 7 are often seen here in hard winters especially about the champian & feildie part it seems they have been more plentifull for in a bill of fare when the maior entertaind the duke of norfolk I meet with Cranes in a dish.

In hard winters elkes 8 a kind of wild swan are seen in no small numbers. in whom & not in com̄on swans is remarkable that strange recurvation of the windpipe through the sternon. & the same is also obseruable in cranes. tis probable they come very farre for all the northern discouerers have [ha struck out] obserued them in the remotest parts & like diuers [&] other northern birds if the winter bee mild they com̄only come no further southward then scotland if very hard they go lower & seeke more southern places. wch is the cause that sometimes wee see them not before christmas or the hardest time of winter.

A white large & strong billd fowle called a Ganet 9 which seemes to bee the greater sort of Larus. whereof I met with one kild by a greyhound neere swaffam another in marshland while it fought & would not bee forced to take wing another intangled in an herring net wch taken aliue was fed with herrings for a while it may be named Larus maior Leucophæopterus as being white & the top of the wings browne.

[Fol. 7.] In hard winters I have also met with that large & strong billd fowle wch clusius describeth by the name of Skua Hoyeri 10 [fr struck out] sent him from the faro Island by Hoierus a physitian. one whereof was shot at Hickling while 2 thereof were feeding upon a dead horse.

As also that [strong struck out] large & strong billd fowle [Clusius nameth struck out] spotted like a starling wch clusius nameth Mergus maior farrœnsis 11 as frequenting the faro islands seated above shetland. one whereof I sent unto my worthy friend Dr Scarburgh.

Here is also the pica marina 12 or seapye many sorts of Lari,13 seamewes & cobs. the Larus maior in great abundance [about struck out] in [written above] herring time about yarmouth.

Larus alba or puets in such plentie about Horsey that they sometimes bring them in carts to norwich & sell them at small rates. & the country people make use of their egges in puddings & otherwise. great plentie thereof haue bred about scoulton [mere struck out] meere, & from thence sent to London.

Larus cinereus greater & smaller, butt a coars meat. commonly called sternes.

Hirundo marina or sea swallowe a neat white & forked tayle bird butt longer then a swallowe.

The ciconia or stork 14 I have seen in the fennes & some haue been shot in the marshes between this and yarmouth. [See also third letter to Merrett and Appendix D.]

[Fol. 8.] The platea or shouelard,15 wch build upon the topps of high trees. they haue formerly built in the Hernerie at claxton & Reedham now at Trimley in Suffolk. they come in march & are shot by fowlers not for their meat butt the handsomenesse of the same, remarkable in their white colour copped crowne & spoone or spatule like bill.

corvus marinus. cormorants.16 building at Reedham upon trees from whence King charles the first was wont to bee supplyed. beside the Rock cormorant wch breedeth in the rocks in northerne countries & cometh to us in the winter, somewhat differing from the other in largenesse & whitenesse under the wings.

A sea fowl called a shearwater,17 somewhat billed like a cormorant butt much lesser a strong & feirce fowle houering about shipps when they [clense struck out] cleanse their fish. 2 were kept 6 weekes cram̄ing them with fish wch they would not feed on of themselues. the seamen told mee they had kept them 3 weekes without meat. & I giuing ouer to feed them found they liued 16 dayes without [any hin struck out] taking any thing.

Barnacles 18 Brants Branta [wer struck out] are com̄on

sheldrakes sheledracus jonstoni

Barganders a noble coloured fowle vulpanser wch breed in cunny burrowes about norrold & other places.

[Fol. 9.] Wild geese Anser ferus.

scoch goose Anser scoticus.

Goshander,19 merganser.

Mergus acutirostris speciosus or Loone an handsome & specious fowle cristated & with diuided finne feet placed very backward and after the manner of all such wch the Duch call [Assf struck out] Arsvoote.20 they haue a peculiar formation in the leggebone wch hath a long & sharpe processe extending aboue the thigh bone [it struck out] they come about April & breed in the broad waters so making their nest on the water that their egges are seldom drye while they are sett on.

Mergus acutarostris cinereus [another d struck out] wch seemeth to bee a difference of the former.

Mergus minor the smaller diuers or dabchicks in riuers & broade waters.

Mergus serratus the saw billd diuer bigger & longer than a duck distinguished from other diuers by a notable sawe bill to retaine its slipperie pray as liuing much upon eeles whereof we haue seldome fayled to find some in their bellies.

Diuers other sorts of diuefowle more remarkable the mustela fusca & mustela variegata 21 the graye dunne & the variegated or partie coloured wesell so called from the resemblance it beareth vnto a wesell in the head.

[Fol. 12.I] many sorts of wild ducks 22 wch passe under names well knowne unto the fowlers though of no great signification as smee [wige struck out] widgeon Arts ankers noblets.

the most remarkable are Anas platyrinchos [sic] a remarkably broad bild duck.

And the sea phaysant holding some resemblance unto that bird [in the tayle crossed out] in some fethers in the tayle.

Teale Querquedula. wherein scarce any place more abounding. the condition of the country & the very many decoys [mo struck out] especially between Norwich and the sea making this place very much to abound in wild fowle.

fulicæ cottæ cootes 23 in very great flocks upon the broad waters. upon the appearance of a Kite or buzzard I have seen them vnite from all parts of the shoare in strange numbers when if the Kite stoopes neare them they will fling up [and] spred such a flash of water up with there wings that they will endanger the Kite. & so [es struck out] keepe him of [in of struck out] agayne & agayne in open opposition. & an handsome prouision they make about their nest agaynst the same bird of praye by bending & twining the rushes & reeds so about them that they cannot stoope at their yong ones or the damme while she setteth.

Gallinula aquatica 24 more hens.

And a kind of Ralla aquatica or water Rayle.

[Fol. 13.] An onocrotalus or pelican 25 shott upon Horsey fenne 1663 May 22 wch stuffed and cleansed I yet retaine it was 3 yards & half between the extremities of the wings the chowle & beake answering the vsuall discription the extremities of the wings for a spanne deepe browne the rest of the body white. a fowle [not found struck out] wch none could remember upon this coast. about the same time I heard one of the kings pellicans was lost at St James’, perhaps this might bee the same.

Anas Arctica clusii wch though hee placeth about the faro Islands is the same wee call a puffin com̄on about Anglisea in wales & sometimes [for struck out] taken upon our seas not sufficiently described by the name of puffinus the bill being so remarkably differing from other ducks & not horizontally butt meridionally formed to feed in the clefts of the rocks of insecks, shell-fish & others.

The great number of riuers riuulets & plashes of water makes hernes [to abound in these struck out] & herneries to abound in these parts. yong hensies being esteemed a festiuall dish & much desired by some palates.

The Ardea stellaris botaurus, or bitour 26 is also com̄on & esteemed the better dish. in the belly of one I found a frog in an hard frost at christmas. another I kept in a garden 2 yeares feeding it with fish mice & frogges. in defect whereof making a scrape for sparrowes & small birds, the bitour made shifft to maintaine herself upon them.

[Fol. 14.] Bistardæ or Bustards 27 are not vnfrequent in the champain & feildie part of this country a large Bird accounted a dayntie dish, obseruable in the strength of the brest bone & short heele layes an egge much larger then a Turkey.

Morinellus or Dotterell 28 about Thetford & the champain wch comes vnto us in september & march staying not long. & is an excellent dish.

There is also a sea dotterell somewhat lesse butt better coloured then the former.

Godwyts taken chiefly in marshland, though other parts not without them accounted the dayntiest dish in England & I think for the bignesse, of the biggest price.

Gnatts or Knots [only so far on p. 14, but as follows on fol. 13 verso].

Gnats or Knots a small bird which taken with netts grow excessively fatt. If [by mew struck out] being mewed & fed with corne a candle lighted in the roome they feed day & night, & when they are at their hight of fattnesse they beginne to grow lame & are then killed or [else they will fall aw struck out] as at their prime & apt to decline.

[resume p. 14.] Erythropus or Redshanck a bird com̄on in the marshes & of com̄on food butt no dayntie dish.

A may chitt 29 a small dark gray bird litle bigger then a stint of fatnesse beyond any. it comes in may into marshland & other parts & abides not aboue a moneth or 6 weekes.

[fol. 13 verso.] Another small bird somewhat larger than a stint called a churre & is com̄only taken amongst them.

[resume fol. 14.] Stints in great numbers about the seashore & marshes about stifkey Burnham & other parts.

Pluuialis or plouer green & graye in great plentie about Thetford & many other heaths. they breed not with us butt in some parts of scotland, and plentifully in Island [Iceland].

[Fol. 15.] The lapwing or vannellus com̄on ouer all the heaths.

Cuccowes 30 of 2 sorts the one farre exceeding the other in bignesse. some have attempted to keepe them in warme roomes all the winter butt it hath not succeeded. in their migration they range very farre northward for in the summer they are to bee found as high as Island.

Avis pugnax. Ruffes 31 a marsh bird of the greatest varietie of colours euery one therein somewhat varying from other. The female is called a Reeve without any ruffe about the neck, lesser then the other & hardly to bee got. They are almost all cocks & putt together fight & destroy each other. & prepare themselues to fight like cocks though they seeme to haue no other offensive part butt the bill. they loose theire Ruffes about the Autumne or beginning of winter as wee haue obserued [they struck out] keeping them in a garden from may till the next spring. they most abound in Marshland butt are also in good number in the marshes between norwich & yarmouth.

Of picus martius 32 or woodspeck many kinds. The green the Red the Leucomelanus or neatly marked [red crossed out] black & white & the cinereus or dunne calld [a re struck out] little [bird calld written above] a nuthack. remarkable in the larger are the hardnesse of the bill & skull & the long nerues wch tend vnto the tongue whereby it strecheth out the tongue aboue an inch out of the mouth & so [lik crossed out] licks up insecks. they make the holes in trees without any consideration of the winds or quarters of heauen butt as the rottenesse thereof best affordeth conuenience.

[fol. 15 verso.] black heron 33 black on both sides the bottom of the neck neck [sic] white gray on the outside spotted all along with black on the inside a black coppe of small feathers some a spanne long. bill poynted and yallowe 3 inches long

back heron coloured intermixed with long white fethers the flying (?) fethers black the brest black & white most black the legges & feet not green but an ordinarie dark cork [?] colour.

[Fol. 16.] The number of riuulets becks & streames whose banks are beset with willowes & Alders wch giue occasion of easier fishing & slooping to the water makes that [bir crossed out] handsome coulered bird abound wch is calld Alcedo Ispida or the King fisher. they bild in holes about grauell pitts [have their nests very full crossed out] wherein [are crossed out] is [above] to bee found great quantitie of small fish bones. & lay [a crossed out] very handsome round & as it were polished egges.

An Hobby bird 34 so calld becaus it comes in ether with or a litle before the Hobbies in the spring. of the bignesse of a Thrush coloured & paned J like an hawke marueliously subiet to the vertigo & and are sometimes taken in those fitts.

Upupa or Hoopebird 35 so named from its note a gallant marked bird wch I have often seen & tis not hard to shoote them.

Ringlestones 36 a small [bird crossed out] white & black bird like a wagtayle & seemes to bee some kind of motacilla marina com̄on about yarmouth sands. they lay their egges in the sand & shingle about june and as the eryngo diggers tell mee not sett them flat butt upright likes [sic] egges in [a crossed out] salt.

The Arcuata or curlewe frequent about the sea coast.

[Fol. 17.] There is also an handsome tall bird Remarkably eyed and with a bill not aboue 2 inches long com̄only calld a stone curlewe 37 butt the note thereof more resembleth that of a green plouer [it crossed out] & breeds about Thetford about the stones & shingle of the Riuers.

Auoseta 38 calld [I thinck a Barker crossed out] shoohingg-horne [written above] a tall black & white bird with a bill semicircularly reclining or bowed upward so that it is not easie to conceiue how it can feed answerable vnto the Auoseta Italorum in Aldrovandus a summer marsh bird & not unfrequent in Marshland.

[A bird calld Barker from the note it hath crossed out]

A yarwhelp 39 so thought to bee named from its note a gray bird intermingled with some yellowish [whitish written above] fethers [the bill crossed out] somewhat long legged & the bill about an inch & half. esteemed a dayntie dish.

Loxias or curuirostra a bird a litle bigger than a Thrush of fine colours & prittie note [the m crossed out] differently from other birds, the [lower crossed out] upper & lower bill crossing each other. of a very tame nature, comes about the beginning of summer. I have known them kept in cages butt not to outliue the winter.

A kind of coccothraustes calld a [cobble crossed out] coble bird 40 bigger than a Thrush, finely coloured & shaped like a Bunting [it comes crossed out] it is [sometimes crossed out] chiefly [written above] seen [about crossed out] in sum̄er about cherrie time.

[fol. 16 verso.] A small bird of prey 41 [something smeared out here] calld a birdcatcher about the bignesse of a Thrush and linnet coloured with a longish white bill & sharpe of a very feirce & wild nature though kept in a cage & fed with flesh. [Added after in same hand but fresher ink] a kind of Lanius [Lanius crossed out and written more distinctly under].

[p. 17 resumed.] A Dorhawke 42 or kind of Accipiter muscarius conceiued to haue its name from feeding upon flies & beetles. of a woodcock colour but paned like an Hawke a very litle poynted bill. large throat. breedeth with us & layes a maruellous handsome spotted egge. Though I haue opened many I could neuer find anything considerable in their mawes. caprimulgus.

[Fol. 18.] Auis Trogloditica 43 or Chock a small bird mixed of black & white & breeding in cony borrouges whereof the warrens are full from April to September. at which time they leaue the country. they are taken with an Hobby and a net and are a very good dish.

Spermologus. [sic] Rookes wch by reason of the [in reason of crossed out] great quantitie of corn feilds & Rooke groues are in great plentie the yong ones are com̄only eaten sometimes sold in norwich market & many are killd for their Liuers in order to cure of the Rickets.

Crowes 44 as euerywhere and also the coruus variegatus or pyed crowe with dunne & black interchangeably they come in the winter & depart in the summer & seeme to bee the same wch clusius discribeth in the faro Islands from whence perhaps these come. [they are crossed out] and I have seen them [written above] very com̄on in Ireland, butt not known in many parts of England.

Coruus maior Rauens in good plentie about the citty wch makes so few Kites to bee seen hereabout. they build in woods very early & lay egges in februarie.

Among the many monedulas or Jackdawes I could neuer in these parts obserue the pyrrhocorax or cornish chough with red leggs & bill to bee com̄only seen in Cornwall. & though there bee heere very great [num crossed out] store of partridges yet [not crossed out] the french Red leggd partridge 45 is not to bee met with [heere crossed out]. the Ralla or Rayle 46 wee haue counted a dayntie dish. as also no small number of Quayles. the Heathpoult 47 com̄on in the north is vnknown heere as also the Grous. though I haue heard some haue been seen about Lynne. the calandrier or great [Fol. 19] great [sic] crested lark Galerita I haue not met with heere though with 3 other sorts [of Larkes written above] the ground lark woodlark & titlark.

Stares or starlings in great numbers. most remarkable in their [great crossed out] numerous [written above] flocks [about the crossed out] wch I haue obserued about the Autumne when they roost at night [up crossed out] in the marshes in safe place upon reeds & alders. wch to obserue I went to the marshes about sunne set. where standing by their vsuall place of resort I obserued very many flocks flying from all quarters. wch in lesse than an howers space came all in & settled in innumerable [quantitie crossed out] numbers [written below] in a small compasse.

Great varietie of finches 48 and other small birds whereof one very small [one crossed out] calld a whinne bird marked with fine yellow spotts & lesser than a wren. there is also a small bird called a chipper somewhat resembling the former wch comes in the spring & feeds upon the first buddings of birches & other early trees.

A kind of Anthus [or crossed out] Goldfinch [written above] or fooles coat com̄only calld a drawe water. finely marked with red & yellowe & a white bill. wch they take with trap cages in norwich gardens & fastning a chaine about them tyed to a box of water it makes a shift with bill and legge to draw up the water unto it from the litle pot hanging [abot the length of crossed out] by the chaine about a foote [downe crossed out] belowe.

[The account of the Roller, which is written on smaller paper, will be found improperly inserted among the Fishes, between pp. 30 and 32 as follows:—]

[Fol. 31.] On the xiiii of May 1664 a very rare bird was sent mee kild about crostwick wch seemed to bee some kind of Jay.49 the bill was black strong and bigger then a Jayes somewhat yellowe clawes tippd black. 3 before and one clawe behind the whole bird not so bigge as a Jaye [the crossed out.]

The head neck & throat of a violet colour the back upper parts of the wing of a russet yellowe the fore & part of the wing azure succeeded downward by a greenish blewe then on the flying feathers bright blewe the lower parts of the wing outwardly of a browne [the crossed out] inwardly of a merry blewe the belly a light faynt blewe the back toward the tayle of a purple blewe the tayle eleuen fethers of a greenish coulour the extremities of the outward fethers thereof white wth an eye K of greene. Garrulus Argentoratensis [the name added in a different ink and pen].

Notes

H The heading adopted by Wilkin, for which I cannot find that he had any authority, is certainly misleading, for the brief and fragmentary notes which follow, although of great interest, can hardly be called “An Account of the Birds (or Fishes) found in Norfolk,” as there are many species of each inhabiting or visiting the county which must have been well-known to Browne, but of which we find no mention.

1 With regard to the probable origin of these notes (see “Introduction,” p. xxi.). The opening passage was probably addressed to the deceased correspondent who had asked his assistance, whereas his first letter to Merrett seems to indicate that the offer of help to him came spontaneously from Browne (“I take ye boldness to salute you,” &c.), and was not in response to Merrett’s request.

2 Browne seems to have had on the whole a fairly correct idea with regard to the migratory movements of the birds on the Norfolk coast where peculiar facilities exist for such observations, but of course he could have formed no notion of the extent to which they prevail, perhaps no species being altogether sedentary. The general line of the autumn migration for those which spend their summer in Northern Europe is south or south-west, returning in the spring by the reverse route; those which visit us in spring from Western Europe, or countries lying still more to the eastward, adopt what is known as the east to west route, and reverse the direction in the autumn; but this latter is as nothing compared with the vast number of immigrants by both routes in the early autumn, at which time, especially, the movements are so exceedingly complex that it would be impossible here to attempt to explain them, and the reader must be referred to Mr. Eagle Clarke’s digest of the Reports of the Migration Committee of the British Association (“Report Brit. Ass. for 1876,” pp. 451-477).

3 The “Aquila” of Gesner here referred to is evidently the Golden Eagle, which species Browne is careful to mention that he had not met with in this county, and that the specimen he sent to Dr. Scarburgh, more than once mentioned, was brought from Ireland. This bird has never been recorded alive in Norfolk. Immature White-tailed Eagles, the “Halyætus” of the text, still occur almost every autumn or winter on this coast, but no mature example has hitherto been killed. Browne’s friend, Sir Charles Scarburgh (1616-1694), was born in London, and is buried at Cranford, in Middlesex. He seems to have been greatly distinguished as an anatomist and physician. He was a friend of William Harvey, whom he succeeded as Lumleyan Lecturer at the College of Physicians (of which he was elected a fellow in 1650). Harvey, out of regard for his “lovinge friend” Dr. Scarburgh, bequeathed to him his “little silver instruments of surgerie” and his velvet gown. (“Dict. of Nat. Biog.”) The Golden Eagle sent him by Browne was kept in the College of Physicians in Warwick Lane for two years.

4 This species is a not unfrequent autumn visitor to the Broads and Rivers of Norfolk. Browne names it correctly, but there was much confusion with regard to this species in the minds of the old authors. Willughby knew the bird and calls it the “Bald Buzzard,” but in describing its nesting site and eggs (probably not on his own authority,) evidently confounds it with the Marsh Harrier, for he says that “it builds upon the ground among reeds, and lays three or four large white eggs of a figure exactly elliptical, lesser than hens’ eggs.” See Note 6.

5 The Glede, or Puttock, of Turner, once so plentiful, is now only an extremely rare visitor to Norfolk. In 1815, it appears from Hunt (“British Ornithology”), not to have been uncommon, but the same authority in his list of Norfolk Birds contributed to Stacey’s “History” of that County, speaks of the Kite as having in 1829 become extremely rare. It probably ceased to nest in this County about the year 1830, or perhaps a little later. Browne’s reason for its comparative scarcity about the City of Norwich, viz., the abundance of Ravens mentioned at p. 27 infra, is very interesting to us in the present day when Kites and Ravens are almost equally rare.

6 It seems likely that Browne here refers to two species of Harrier, the Grey Buzzard being the male of the Hen Harrier (including of course Montagu’s Harrier which was not discriminated till long after) in its grey adult plumage, whereas the Marsh Harrier, with its light yellow head, to which the word “bald” as then used might well be applied, would stand for the “Bald Buzzard.” The Harriers, which were till long after the time he wrote extremely numerous, are generally called “Buzzards” by the natives, and it will be noticed at p. 15 infra, that what is doubtless intended for the Marsh Harrier is spoken of as an enemy to the Coots; also at p. 56, it is said that young Otters “have been found in the Buzzards nests,” a very likely circumstance with so fierce a bird, and one of which I have an impression I have heard in recent years. The Hen Harrier is now an extremely rare bird with us; the Marsh Harrier still occasionally nests in the Broads, and Montagu’s Harrier now and then attempts to rear a brood, but even should the parents succeed in escaping it is very seldom they carry their young with them. Professor Newton has kindly favoured me with the following additional interesting note on this bird. “The Marsh Harrier is certainly the ‘Balbushardus’ of Turner (1544), which, though he says it is bigger and longer than the ordinary Buteo, has a white patch on the head and is generally of a dark brown (fuscus) colour, hunting the banks of rivers, pools, and marshes, living by the capture of Ducks, and the black birds which the English call Coots (Coutas). This he, Turner, has himself very often seen, and he describes its habits correctly; adding that it also takes Rabbits occasionally. Gesner, 1555, quotes Turner, but refers the Bald Buzzard to the Osprey (which he figures), and so the mistake began. Certainly Willughby’s Bald Buzzard is the Osprey, but his book was not published when Browne wrote.”

7 In the present day the Crane is only a rare straggler to this country generally at the seasons of its migration; that it was in times past abundant in suitable localities there is ample evidence; that it also bred in the fens of the Eastern Counties there is no reason to doubt, but very little direct evidence is forthcoming, therefore every fact bearing upon this point is of value. Had Sir Thomas Browne written with the intention of publishing his observations he would doubtless have told us much about this grand bird, which would have been of the greatest interest to modern ornithologists, but even the above brief remarks, as will be seen, are worthy of note.
With regard to the occurrence of the Crane in the fens of East Anglia we have the following evidence; its fossil remains have been found in the peat at Burwell, in Cambridgeshire, and in excavating the docks at Lynn. Turner, in his “Avium Historia,” Coloniæ, 1544, speaks of having seen young Cranes in this country, and as he passed fifteen years at Cambridge, it was probably in that neighbourhood that he met with them; then again there is the Act of Parliament, passed in 1534 (25th Hen. VIII. c. ii.), prohibiting the taking of their eggs (amongst those of other species) under a penalty of twenty pence. All this is well known, but being desirous to ascertain whether any reference to the Crane was to be found in the records of the Corporation of Norwich, Mr. J. C. Tingey, F.S.A., the custodian of the Muniment Room, at my request, most kindly searched the accounts of the City Chamberlain between the years 1531 and 1549. He there found numerous entries of sums expended in the purchase of cranes, swans, porpoises, &c., as presents to the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and others, and amongst them, on the 6th of June, 1543, a charge for a “yong pyper crane” from Hickling, which appears conclusive evidence of the breeding of this bird near Norwich at that time. (See “Transactions of the N. and N. Nat. Soc.,” vii., pp. 160-170.)
In Wilkin’s Edition of the Notes the statement, “I met” with Cranes in a dish should be, “I meet with,” &c., as it is in the original. The occasion referred to was probably an entertainment given by the Mayor of Norwich, on the Guild day in 1663, which in that year fell on the 19th June; at this banquet Henry, Duke of Norfolk and the Hon. Henry Howard were present, and the latter presented to the City a silver basin and ewer of the value of £60. Can it be that even at that time young Cranes were to be obtained? otherwise the middle of June seems a most unseasonable time for such a dish; for in a copy of a curious old manuscript, dated 1605, and published in the 13th Volume of “Archæologia” (p. 315), entitled “A Breviate touching the Order and Government of a Nobleman’s house,” &c., there is a “Monthlie Table, for a Diatorie” for each month in the year, and the Crane appears only in the tables from November till March inclusive. The modern gourmet would view with disgust some of the dishes included in this “diatorie” if set before him—only to mention among birds, auks, stares, petterells, puffines, didapers, and martins. The crane being “in the dish” must not be subjected to the vulgar process of “kervyng,” but in the stilted heraldic language of the day must be “desplayed,” whereas a heron must be “dismembered” and a bittern “unjointed.” The price of a crane varied from 3s. 4d. to 5s., and a fat swan from 3s. to 4s. The sum of 6d. mentioned in the le Strange Household-book, in the year 1533 (see “Archæologia,” vol. xxv., p. 529), quoted in Yarrell’s “British Birds,” iii., p. 180, was only the reward for bringing in a crane killed on the estate. That Cranes must at times have been numerous in Norfolk in the sixteenth century is evident, for in an account of the presents sent to William Moore, Esq., of Loseley, on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter, on 3rd November, 1567, Mr. Balam, “out of Marshland in Norfolk,” sent him nine cranes, nine swans, and sixteen bitterns, with a large number of other wild-fowl. “Archæologia,” vol. xxxvi., p. 36.

8 The “Elke” is an obsolete name for the Wild Swan (Cygnus musicus), which occurs in the present day in the same numbers and under precisely similar circumstances as Browne describes; but of course this was the only species of wild swan known to him. The remarkable recurvation of the trachea within the keel of the sternum, which also prevails to a greater or less degree in four out of the five or six species of Cygnus found in the Northern Hemisphere, did not escape Browne’s notice, although he was not the first to describe it, and he rightly observes that this peculiarity is absent in the Mute Swan (C. olor), but exists in a different and even more exaggerated form in the Crane. He, however, was mistaken as to the extreme northerly range which he assigns to this species. So marked a feature as the absence of the “berry” on the beak of this species did not escape Browne’s observation, and he refers to it in the eighth letter to Merrett, who in his second letter to Browne remarks “the difference in the elk’s bill by you signified is remarkable to distinguish it from others of its kind,” indicating that this distinction was previously unknown to him.

9 As a rule the Gannet does not approach the shore, except to breed, but follows the shoals of fish far out at sea. The circumstance mentioned by Browne is by no means singular, and several such instances of storm-driven Gannets being captured far inland are recorded. The “Scotch Goose, Anser scoticus,” mentioned further on (p. 13 infra), is also in all probability intended for the Gannet; it is the Anser Bassanus sive Scoticus of Jonston. The “Marshland” here mentioned is a tract of country reclaimed in ancient times from the sea, lying to the west of the town of Lynn, of some 57,000 acres in extent, and bordering upon the estuary of the Wash.

10 Willughby (“Ornithology,” English Ed., p. 348) gives a good description of the Great Skua (Stercorarius catarrhactes) under the name of Catarracta, a skin of which he says was sent him by Dr. Walter Needham, and rightly identified it with the Skua which Hoier sent to Clusius, but his figure is evidently drawn from a skin of the Great Black-backed Gull. Hoier, whose name so often occurs about this time in connection with birds from the north, was a physician, living at Bergen in Norway. The Great Skua still breeds in sadly reduced numbers on the Shetland and Faröe Islands, but is rarely met with in Norfolk.

11 The bird here mentioned is doubtless the Great Northern Diver, Colymbus glacialis. In another place Browne again refers to it as Mergus maximus Farrensis, which Clusius (“Exotic.,” p. 102) calls Mergus maximus Farrensis, a name used by Willughby as a synonym for his “Greatest Speckled Diver or Loon” (p. 341). This bird is known to our fishermen as the Herring Loon, the Red-throated and perhaps also the Black-throated Divers being called Sprat Loons. It is a pity Browne’s “draught” is not forthcoming.

12 The Oyster Catcher, or Sea Pie, is found in greater numbers on the north-west portion of the County of Norfolk than on the eastern shore; it breeds occasionally about Wells, where it is universally known as the “Dickey-bird.”

13 Browne here refers to the family in general terms. The various species of Gulls in their different stages of plumage were very puzzling to the Ornithologists of the last century, and it is often extremely difficult to say to what individual species they refer. By Larus major he would probably mean the Black-backed and Herring Gulls which are found on the shore all the year round, most frequently in the immature plumage, but they most abound “in herring time.” By far the commonest species at all times is Browne’s Larus alba or Puet, the Black-headed Gull. Large flocks of this species and L. canus frequent Breydon and the tidal shores, especially the young birds of the year. There are now two large breeding-places of the Black-headed Gull in Norfolk, a very old-established one at Scoulton Mere, and a more recent colony at Hoveton Broad. The former extensive gullery at Horsey, mentioned by Browne, has long since been banished by the drainage of the marsh they frequented, and it is probable that a small colony which bred on Ormesby Broad some forty years ago, owed its origin to their banishment from Horsey. They, in their turn, deserted Ormesby on the erection of the works for supplying Yarmouth with water about the year 1855, and fixed upon Hoveton as their new home, in which place, as at Scoulton, they are carefully preserved.
Professor Newton has been kind enough to furnish me with the following note on the Terns. “Larus cinereus of Aldrovandus (and afterwards of Jonston), is said to be of three kinds: one with red legs, apparently the Black-headed Gull, and figured by Jonston, the second with yellow legs and a slender curved black bill, the third with a pointed scarlet bill. Both these last were most likely Terns—and all these were grey above and white below. Gesner quotes Turner for Sterna, and there is no doubt that his bird of that name was a Black Tern; but Gesner says that it is the Stirn of the Frisians, and figures a white and grey bird with a black head only (most likely a Common Tern, but possibly one of the larger species), as Sterna, thus using the word in a more general sense, and it may have been so used in Browne’s time. I see no impossibility in people having thought of eating Terns in those days [as to that see Note 7, p. 6 ante]. The Common Tern was most likely very abundant, and we know that the Black Tern was exceedingly common in certain reed-beds, as stated by Turner, and noisy beyond measure.” The Great and Lesser Terns still nest in one or two localities on our coast, although as the result of great persecution in very reduced numbers. The Black Tern, or Mire Crow, has quite ceased to do so.

14 Although it has been met with in Norfolk, more frequently than perhaps in any other part of England, the Stork was never other than a rare spring and autumn visitor to Norfolk. Turner writes of it in 1544 as unknown in England, save as a captive, and Merrett a hundred years later says it rarely flies hither, which is equally true at the present time. Hewittson (“Eggs of Brit. Birds,” Ed. 3, ii., p. 309; under Crane) was evidently misled by some remarks made by Evelyn, who visited Sir Thomas Browne in Norwich in October, 1671, and says in his diary that he saw Browne’s “Collection of the eggs of all the fowl and birds he could procure; that country, especially the promontory of Norfolk, being frequented, as he said, by several birds which seldom or never go further into the land—as cranes, storks, eagles, and a variety of water-fowl.” From this Hewitson infers that the Stork bred in Norfolk, a construction which the somewhat ambiguously worded passage will certainly not bear. I imagine collections of eggs were not very common in Browne’s time.

15 This interesting record has recently been supplemented by a much earlier record of the breeding of the “Popeler,” or Shovelard, in Norfolk. Professor Newton (“Transactions of N. and N. Nat. Soc.,” vi., p. 158) has called attention to an ancient document bearing date A.D. 1300, instituting a commission to inquire into the harrying of the eyries of these and other birds, &c., at Cantley and other places in Norfolk. Documents also exist, showing that in 1523 they nested at Fulham in Middlesex, and in 1570 in West Sussex, as pointed out by Mr. Harting in the “Zoologist” for 1877, p. 425, and 1886, p. 81, in each case constructing their nests in trees. At what precise date this bird ceased to breed in Norfolk and Suffolk is unknown, but Sir T. Browne’s statement that they were “shot by fowlers not for their meat, butt the handsomenesse of the same,” probably explains the circumstances which brought about that event. The Spoonbill visits Norfolk regularly every spring in small parties now more numerously than a few years since, which possibly may be accounted for by the destruction of nearly all its breeding-places in Holland, and it is possible that with due encouragement it might again be induced to breed in some of the localities in the Broads still suitable for the purpose.

16 The Cormorant continued to nest in the trees on the shore of Fritton Lake for many years after Sir T. Browne’s time. A manuscript note in a copy of Berkenhout’s “Natural History of Great Britain and Ireland,” published in 1769, is descriptive of a Cormorant killed at Belton Decoy (near the same lake) on the 11th September, 1775, and also states that “a vast number of these birds, even to some thousands, roost every night upon the trees,” being in the neighbourhood of the decoy they are never shot, and “build their nests upon the top of these trees.” According to Mr. Lubbock (“Fauna of Norf.,” Ed. 2, p. 174), “in 1825 there were many nests at Herringfleet, also on Fritton Lake, and in 1827 not one.” We may therefore assume that they ceased to nest at Herringfleet in 1825 or 1826. It will be noticed that Browne made free use of young Cormorants in his experiments as to the properties of certain drugs (cf. Wilkin, iv., p. 452), which would seem to indicate that he could obtain a plentiful supply of these birds. When the Cormorants ceased to breed at Reedham is unknown. They are not unfrequently seen now, generally in spring and autumn. The Rock Cormorant was possibly the Crested Cormorant or Shag.

17 Willughby’s first acquaintance with the adult Manx Shearwater (“Ornithology,” p. 334) was from a drawing sent him by Sir T. Browne, who describes the bird, as above, under the accepted name of Shearwater, and Willughby’s excellent figure on plate lxvii. (which plate I believe is not to be found in some copies of the “Ornithology,” and to which there is no reference in the text) has all the appearance of having been drawn from life. The drawing here referred to is mentioned by Ray in his “Collection of English words not generally known,” as having been received, with others, from the “learned and deservedly famous Sir Thomas Browne, of Norwich.” George Edwards (“Gleanings of Nat. Hist.,” vii., p. 315), prior to 1764. says that he went to the British Museum and examined Browne’s “old draught,” but I could not find it among any of the papers I examined. In Browne’s fourth letter to Merrett, by an error in the transcription, he is made by Wilkin to say that he kept twenty of these birds alive for five weeks; in the MS. it is clearly only two.

18 Barnacle and Brent Geese as we know them, the first by no means common here; the Wild Goose, probably Anser cinereus; the Scotch Goose (see Note 9), probably the Gannet; and the Bergander, an old name for the Sheld-drake, as used by Turner in 1544, and derived from the Dutch Berg-eende, German Bergente (“Dict. Birds,” p. 835). Browne’s statement that this bird formerly bred about Northwold, or as it is even now occasionally called by the natives, “Norrold,” some twenty miles from the sea; or, as he says, in the fourth letter to Merrett, “abounding in vast and spatious commons,” is very interesting, although not a solitary instance, for I am informed that this bird breeds in the present day on the Gull Lake, Twig Moor, in Lincolnshire; but that it should have chosen such a nesting site is not more surprising than the fact of the Ring Plover, quite as strictly a marine species, frequenting the extensive sandy warrens about Thetford and Brandon, near the south-west border of the county, for the same purpose, as they still continue to do. But for Browne’s mention of the circumstance we should not have been aware of this singular departure from the normal nesting habits of the Sheld-duck, as no tradition I believe exists on the subject, and at present it only nests in the sand-hills in some parts of the coast of N.W. Norfolk.

19 This evidently refers to the Goosander, which as he says in another place most answers to the Merganser.

20 This well describes the Great-crested Grebe, which Browne rightly says comes to us about the month of April. Browne notices the peculiar formation of the tibia in this family of birds, but it had long been known. The next, named Mergus acutirostris cinereus, is most likely the same species in winter plumage. The other birds mentioned are Mergus minor, the Little Grebe or Dabchick, and M. serratus, the Red-breasted Merganser, even now known as the “Saw-bill.”

21 The Smew, male and female, or either in the immature plumage are here referred to.

I Fols. 10 and 11 are (10 written on both sides) on the “Ostridge,” vide Wilkin, Vol. 4, p. 337-9. The paper is a different size, 11-1/2 by 7-1/2, and the article is evidently bound out of place.

22 The local names of the various Ducks are simply legion and differ both in time and place, not to mention the confusion occasioned by sex and season when these birds were not so well understood as at present. Many such names are quite lost, as “Ankers” and “Noblets,” but the following are a few examples: Adult Smew, White Nun; female or immature Smew, Wesel Coot; the Wigeon was known as the Smee, Whewer, or Whim; the Tufted Duck, Arts or Arps; the Gadwall, Grey Duck or Rodge; the Pochard, Dunbird; the Shoveller, Beck or Kertlutock (Hunt); Pintail, Sea Pheasant or Cracker; Long-tailed Duck, Mealy Bird; Golden Eye, Morillon or Rattle-wing; Scaup, Grey-back, and on Breydon White-nosed Day Fowl; Scoter, Whilk; Velvet Scoter, Double Scoter (Hunt); Teal, Crick; Garganey, Summer Teal, Pied Wigeon, Cricket Teal; other names might be mentioned, and some will be found in the notes which will follow. Anas platyrhincus here mentioned is the Shoveller. It may seem strange that the abundance of Teal should in any way be attributed to the number of Decoys, but such was really the case, the quiet and shelter afforded by these extensive preserves being very favourable to the increase of all the members of the Duck family, especially to those breeding in their immediate neighbourhood. In the returns of the old Decoys, Teal figured largely; in the present day they form a very much smaller proportion of the spoils.

23 In the present day the Coots have nothing to fear from Kites and little from Moor Buzzards; it may be that it is in consequence of this that they have discontinued the practice of twining the rushes and reeds above their nests in the manner mentioned above as being an unnecessary precaution. I have, however, in some cases noticed some approach to this practice. The Coot, although fairly numerous on the Broads, appears to be far less so than formerly. Lubbock, in his “Fauna of Norfolk,” says on asking a Broadman how many Coots there were on Hickling Broad, his reply was, “About an acre and a half,” referring to their practice of swimming evenly at regular distances from each other without huddling together in dense masses, like wild-fowl.
I am indebted to Professor Newton for the following additional note on the Coot. He says “Turner, and after him Gesner, was puzzled as to what was the Fulica of classical writers (Virgil and others), and thought it to be some kind of Gull; but the Fulica of later authors was certainly the Coot, as shown by Gesner’s figure.”

24 Moor-hens are of course numerous in all suitable localities, and the Water Rail is still fairly common, but its eggs have a market value and are (or were) sadly stolen; a few years ago a London dealer is said to have received over 200 eggs of this bird in one season from Yarmouth.

25 There is every reason to believe that a species of Pelican, probably from its size P. crispus, was formerly an inhabitant of the East Anglian Fens; its bones have been found in the peat on three occasions, one of these being the bone of a bird so young as to show that it must have been bred in the locality, and therefore that the species was a true native and not a casual visitant. Bones of a species of Pelican have also been found in the remains of lake-dwellings at Glastonbury, in Somersetshire.
With regard to the species of the bird recorded by Browne and its origin, he is careful to point out that a Pelican had about that time escaped from the King’s collection in St. James’ Park, and to surmise that it might be the same bird; from what follows this seems probable, but as P. onocrotalus is believed to stray occasionally into the northern parts of Germany and France (“Dict. of Birds,” p. 702) the occurrence of that species on the East Coast of Britain, where, even at present, it would find a state of things in every way suited to its requirements (guns excepted), would not be very extraordinary. Browne’s Pelican was killed in May, 1663, and although Dr. Edward Browne visited St. James’ Park in February, 1664, and saw “many strange creatures,” including the Stork with the wooden leg (mentioned by Evelyn), he says nothing of the Pelicans, still it may be that it was from him that his father heard of the escape. Evelyn, in his Diary, mentioned that he visited St. James’ Park on February 9th, 1665, and speaks of only one Pelican, which he states was brought from Astrakan by the Russian Ambassador as a present to the King; Willughby says distinctly that the Emperor of Russia sent the King two Pelicans, and further, that he took the description in his “Ornithology” from a bird in the Royal Aviary, St. James’ Park, near Westminster; it seems therefore highly probable that Browne’s bird was one of these which had escaped from confinement. But a rather curious circumstance arises out of this, the bird described by Willughby does not appear to be P. onocrotalus, but a similar species, P. roseus, found chiefly in Indio-China and westward to South-eastern Europe, but occurring as far west as the River Volga (“Cat. of Birds,” B. M., xxvi., p. 466). In this Mr. Ogilvie Grant, the author of that section of the Catalogue, whom I consulted, agrees with me, and the locality whence the birds were derived, mentioned by Willughby, renders not unlikely. Onocrotalus in Browne’s time was a general term for “the Pelican,” and he probably knew but one species and one individual, the escaped bird from Charles II.’s Aviary. Browne’s very miscellaneous collection was destroyed by the authorities at the time of the plague (see ninth letter to Merrett), and probably the remains of this Pelican perished with the rest.

26 This is one of the birds once common enough in Norfolk, which in the present day is only a winter and spring migrant. The last eggs of the Bittern were taken in this county on 30th of March, 1868; the last “boom” of a resident was heard in May, 1886, in the August of which year a young female was killed at Reedham with down still adhering to its feathers; this was probably the last Norfolk-bred Bittern. In the “Vulgar Errors,” book 3, chapter xxvii., section 4, is a discourse on the “mugient noise” of the Bittern and the mode of its production, and in a foot-note in the same place is a curious anecdote illustrating the difficulty of detecting a wounded Bittern, even when marked down in short, recently mown grass and flags. The spring cry of the Bittern is mentioned by Robert Marsham in his unpublished journal nineteen times, between the years 1739 and 1775, as first heard at Stratton Strawless, generally between the 15th of March and the 15th of April; and it was on the 14th of the latter month that Benjamin Stillingfleet records it in the “Calendar of Flora” as heard in the same locality in 1755. He does not describe the note, but uses the words “makes a noise.” Marsham, however, on one occasion, in 1750, a very early year, records it on the 20th of February. As a once familiar sound, but one which will probably never again be heard here under purely normal conditions, these dates seem worthy of recording.

27 The last of the Norfolk and therefore certainly the last of the British-bred Bustards, was killed in May, 1838; those which have since occurred in this country were Continental immigrants. An exhaustive history of the extinction of this bird will be found in Stevenson’s “Birds of Norfolk,” vols. 2 and 3. The Bustard, although found in some numbers, associated in small flocks or “droves” in the few localities which it frequented in Great Britain, was probably never a very numerous species. The following extract from one of Browne’s letters to his son Edward, dated April 30th, and written probably in 1681, shows that he was on the verge of discovering an anatomical peculiarity in this family of birds, which in after years gave rise to much controversy. He says, “yesterday I had a cock Bustard sent me from beyond Thetford. I never did see such a vast thick neck: the crop was pulled out, butt as [a] turkey hath an odde large substance without, so hath this within the inside of the skinne, and the strongest and largest neckbone of any bird in England. This I tell you, that if you meet with one you may further observe it.” The presence of a gular pouch in the Bustard was first demonstrated by James Douglas, a Scotch Physician, in 1740, and it appears to be fully developed only in the adult male bird, and at the breeding season. Hence, although it has undoubtedly been found on several occasions, the frequent unsuccessful searches for it under unfavourable conditions led to much scepticism as to its existence. The use of this singular appendage is still a moot point, but it seems probable that it has to do with “voice production,” and assists in the remarkable “showing off” exhibited by the male bird in the breeding season. Pennant, in his “British Zoology,” 1768, i., p. 215, gives a sentimental account of its use, and an exaggerated estimate of its proportions. In the Tables of Dietary referred to at p. 6 (note) ante, the Bustard is mentioned as in season from October to May.

28 The Dotterel visits us much as in Sir T. Browne’s time, but in decreased numbers. The Sea Dotterel which Wilkin supposes to be the Ring Plover, is undoubtedly the Turnstone. Willughby says, “Our honoured Friend, Sir Thomas Browne, of Norwich, sent us the picture of this bird by the title of the Sea Dotterel.” This is also mentioned in the fifth letter to Merrett. See “Birds of Norfolk,” ii., p. 82, for an interesting account of Dotterel hawking near Thetford by James I. in the year 1610.

29 Mr. Stevenson, “Birds of Norfolk,” ii., p. 233, gives his reasons for coming to the conclusion that the Sanderling (Calidris arenaria) is here referred to, which the absence of a hind toe (see third letter to Merrett) tends to confirm. The “Churre” is only a variant of the name “Purre,” by which the next species, the Stint, is commonly known, and the Green Plover, now applied to the Lapwing, is an old name for the Golden Plover, which he rightly says [p. 20] does not breed in Norfolk.

30 The circumstance which gave rise to the idea that there were two kinds of Cuckoos, differing only in size, might possibly be discovered were it worth the research; possibly it would be found that the second species was of foreign origin. Aldrovandus, as quoted by Willughby, says, “Our Bolognese Fowlers do unanimously affirm, that there are found a greater and a lesser sort of Cuckows; and besides, that the greater are of two kinds, which are distinguished one from the other by the only difference of colour: but the lesser differ from the greater in nothing else but magnitude.” Perhaps it was Browne’s latent respect for antiquity which led him to mention the tradition.

31 It is only necessary to add to Browne’s interesting account of this remarkable bird that it lingered longer in Norfolk as a breeding species than in any other part of Britain, but that although it still visits us in spring it is doubtful whether it has bred for the last few years in the one favourite locality to which it clung so tenaciously. The “Marshland,” here referred to as explained in a previous note, is a tract of country situated in north-west Norfolk, near King’s Lynn.

32 Picus martius is here used, as it is by Sibbald, and all preceding writers, in a general sense for all birds commonly called “Woodpeckers,” and does not imply that the Great Black Woodpecker (Picus niger maximus, of Ray’s Synopsis), to which species the name was restricted by Linnæus, is found here, and Browne goes on to mention the three British Woodpeckers, the Green, the Red, by which the Great Spotted Woodpecker is intended, and the Leucomelanus, or Lesser-spotted Woodpecker. He also includes the Nuthatch, which was at that time (as well as the Wryneck) called a “Woodpecker.” In this passage Browne, in making a correction, does not seem to have proceeded far enough, the word which Wilkin has rendered “dun-coloured,” is certainly “dunne calld” in the MS.; but there are two alterations in the passage, and there is little doubt that he intended to write “dunne cull’d” (or coloured), which would make it read as Wilkin has printed it. The use of the word “nerve,” for tendon or ligament, was in accordance with the phraseology of the time.

33 This passage is not part of the original MS., but is written on a separate slip of paper and pasted on the left-hand side of the opening (p. 15 verso). I doubt whether it is more than a casual memorandum, descriptive possibly of the plumage of the Purple Heron, but not intended to apply to any Norfolk bird. The Black Heron of Willughby is the Glossy Ibis, a bird which is said to have been known to the West Norfolk gunners as the “Black Curlew.”

34 This is evidently the Wryneck, which we now call the “Cuckoo’s Mate,” probably for the same reason that Browne associates it with the Hobby. It may be that the Hobby having become comparatively scarce, it was necessary to find another travelling companion for this bird, and that the Cuckoo was chosen as the most suitable. Old Norfolk names are Emmet-eater, and in one old book it is called Turkey-bird in a MS. note.

J That is marked with a barred or checkered pattern.

35 The Hoopoe would seem from this note to have been of more frequent occurrence than in the present day, see also in his answer to “Certain Queries” (Tract iv., Wilkin iv., p. 183), in which he says of this bird, “though it be not seen every day, yet we often meet with it in this country.”

36 The Ring Plover is evidently the bird here referred to, but I have never known the name of Ringlestone applied to this species in Norfolk, nor have I met with it elsewhere. The Eryngo is now no longer an article of commerce, and its diggers are extinct, but not their tradition as to the position in which the eggs of this bird are said to be placed—a “vulgar error” which does not accord with the writer’s experience. When the full complement of four eggs is laid, they are arranged with their pointed ends towards the centre of the nest, which is a slight hollow in the soil. The concavity of the nest therefore, as well as the disproportionate size of the larger end, gives the eggs somewhat the appearance of being placed in the position referred to, but the small end of the egg is always visible, Sir Thomas Browne does not seem to have been aware of the remarkable fact of this essentially marine bird habitually nesting on the sandy warrens about Thetford in the south-west of Norfolk, far from the sea, which it still does, though in reduced numbers, and is there known as the Stone-hatch, from its habit of paving its nest with small stones.

37 This characteristic Norfolk bird is still far from rare in the locality named by Browne, and is found in several other parts of the county. Willughby says, “The learned and famous Sir Thomas Brown, Physician in Norwich,” informed him to the same effect, and repeats that its note (one of the most charming sounds uttered on the wild trackless heath on a summer’s night) resembles that of the Green (i.e., Golden) Plover, but in the ear of the writer it is even more musical. In the third letter to Merrett, Browne says that he has kept the Stone Curlew (not “four Curlews,” as Wilkin has it,) in large cages.

38 The Avoset is another bird which formerly frequented the marshy districts of Norfolk at the breeding time, but which has now been lost to us except as a very rare passing migrant in the spring. It probably ceased to breed in this county in or about the year 1818, and is said to have been exterminated in consequence of the demand for its feathers for the purpose of dressing artificial flies. It was called “Shoeing-horn,” from the peculiar form of its beak, which, however, rather resembles the bent awl used by shoemakers. Girdlestone, who knew the bird well in its breeding haunts at Salthouse and Horsey, called it “Shoe-awl,” a much more appropriate name. In his third letter to Merrett, Browne again mentions this bird, and applies to it the name of “Barker” (which he had crossed out in the above note), remarking that it was so called from its barking note. Jonston figures this bird twice; once in Tab. 48 under the name of Avosetta Italor., i.e., the Avosetta of the Italians, and again in Tab. 54 under the second name Avoselta species, an obvious error.

39 This paragraph is written on the back of fol. 16. The Yarwhelp is the name by which the Black-tailed Godwit, a species which formerly nested in abundance in the marshes about Horsey and some adjacent localities in the Broads, was known. It virtually ceased to nest here sometime between the years 1829 and 1835, but perhaps an instance or two may have occurred rather later. It was also known as the “Shrieker.” Browne again refers to this bird in the fourth letter to Merrett, where he calls it “barker” (a name which he had no doubt erroneously previously applied to the Avoset), or “Latrator, a marshbird, about the bigness of a Godwitt,” and once again under the name of “Yare-whelp, or barker,” in his fifth letter; it may be that the name “barker” was applied indiscriminately to either species. As Lubbock names this bird as one of the “five species in particular” which “used formerly to swarm in our marshes” (“Fauna of Norfolk”), one would have thought Browne would have been better acquainted with it than seems to have been the case from the hesitating way in which he uses the vernacular name.

40 The Hawfinch was evidently not a very well-known bird in Browne’s time, either to himself or Willughby; the latter says, “it is said to build in holes of trees.” It has steadily increased in frequency as a breeding species with us for the last twenty years.

41 This paragraph is written on the back of fol. 16. The Red-backed Shrike, Lanius collurio, is the only species of Lanius mentioned by Browne; it is singular that he omits all mention of another bird, and that an essentially Norfolk species which would have been new to the Pinax—the Bearded Titmouse, afterwards known to Edwards as the Least Butcher Bird. Browne certainly sent a drawing of this bird to Ray, who in his “Collection of English words not generally used” (1674), as pointed out by Mr. Gurney, mentions it as a “little Bird of a tawny colour on the back, and a blew head, yellow bill, black legs, shot in an Osiar yard, called by Sr. Tho. for distinction sake silerella,” the drawing of which he acknowledges he had received. Pennant, 1768 (“Brit. Zool.,” i., p. 165), follows Edwards (“Nat. Hist. of Birds,” &c., 1745), who classes it with the Laniidæ, and it was not till long after, and as the result of much discussion, that it was finally established as the only representative of a new genus under the name of Panurus biarmicus. The local name is Reed Pheasant, but Browne’s name of Silerella seems an exceedingly appropriate one.

42 Browne seems to have been much interested in this remarkable bird, and mentions it again in his second and third letters to Merrett, especially in the latter; he calls it Caprimulgus, but conceives it to be a kind of Accipiter, muscarius, or cantharophagus, “in brief” [?] “avis rostratula gutturosa, quasi coxans, scarabæis vescens, sub vesperam volans, ovum speciassisimum excludens,” a fair specimen of the descriptive method of the time. Although he used the name Caprimulgus, it will be observed that he does not mention the “vulgar error” which led to its being so called. Merrett includes this species in the Pinax under the name of “Caprimulgus, or the Goat-sucker,” but in a letter to Browne tells him he knows no Hawk called a Dorhawk.

43 The Wheatear is here referred to; the name trogloditica would seem to be more appropriate in this country, having reference to its habits of nesting in “Cony borroughs,” than that of ænanthe, as applied to it by those who knew it as frequenting the Continental vineyards. A name still, or recently in use in West Norfolk, is Cony-chuck.

44 The Crow (Corvus corone) is much less common in Norfolk than formerly, but it still nests here in a few scattered localities. C. cornix, the Hooded, Norway, Danish, or “Royston” Crow, is an autumn immigrant as of yore, but not especially from the Faröe Islands; both species (or forms as by some regarded) are immigrants from the east, but the latter, as a rule, occupies a more northern range than the former. The Raven (C. corax) is now a very rare visitor to Norfolk; it is probable that it last nested in this county in the year 1859. The Jackdaw, or Caddow, is common enough, but the Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) is quite unknown in Norfolk. Although the Magpie must have been well known to Browne I find no mention of it in these notes.

45 The Red-legged Partridge is now common enough; it was introduced into the Eastern Counties at Sudbourne and Rendlesham, in East Suffolk, in or about the year 1770, by both the Marquis of Hertford and Lord Rendlesham. How quickly they established themselves may be judged from the fact that in the season of 1806-7 of 1,927 Partridges killed at Rendlesham 112 were Red legs, but they do not seem to have spread very far. A second introduction, this time into West Suffolk, much nearer to the Norfolk border, at and about Culford, was effected in the year 1823, and from this centre they rapidly spread into Norfolk, in which county also others were imported by the resident proprietors.

46 The Land Rail (Crex pratensis) or Daker hen, is doubtless here referred to, as the Water Rail has already been mentioned (p. 15 ante) as “a kind of Ralla aquatica.” This bird is a summer visitor, by no means common and very uncertain in its numbers. The same applies to the Quail, which appears to be less frequent than formerly, no doubt from the great destruction on the Mediterranean coast in spring of the birds migrating to England. In the summer and autumn of 1870 we had an unusual influx of these latter birds.

47 How far the indigenous race of Blackgame, which undoubtedly lingered for many years about Wolferton and Sandringham, still exists, it is difficult to say; examples turn up occasionally, but so many of these birds have been introduced and turned off in different parts of the county in the course of the past forty years, that it is impossible to speak with certainty.

48 In his fifth letter to Merrett Browne says, “I confess for such little birds I am much unsatisfied on the names given to many by countrymen and uncertain what to give them myself.” This is painfully apparent in the cases of the two little birds here referred to as the “Whinne-bird” and the “Chipper.” From the description of the former, “marked with fine yellow spots and lesser than a Wren,” also with a “shining yellow spot on the back of the head,” it seems likely that the Gold-crested Wren is intended. The Chipper, he says, “comes in the spring and feeds upon the first buddings of birches and other early trees;” he also calls it “Betulæ carptor,” and says that he sends a drawing to Merrett; a third mention is as follows: “That which I called a Betulæ carptor, and should rather have called it Alni carptor... it feeds upon alder buds, nucaments, or seeds, which grow plentifully here; they fly in little flocks.” I can only suggest that this bird may be the Siskin, which fairly answers the description. It visits us in small flocks on its way north very early in the year, feeding upon the seeds of the alder, birch, and larch trees. One would however have thought that the Siskin would have been well known to Browne, as it evidently was to Turner, Willughby, and Ray. Merrett mentions it under Turner’s name of “Luteola.”

49 This note is interesting as the first record of the occurrence of the Roller in Britain, to which country it is a rare wanderer. Although it had long been known on the Continent, its identity seems to have puzzled Browne, and he imagines (as did others, both before and after him,) it to be some kind of Jay; later, in his second letter to Merrett (January, 1668), he says that it answers to the description of Garrulus argentoratensis (the name given by Aldrovandus to whom it was known), and calls it “the Parrot-jay.” This is five years after the original note was made, and we find that the words Garrulus argentoratensis, written by the same hand but with a different pen and ink, have been added subsequently, doubtless as the result of further information. In another letter he mentions having sent the bird to Merrett, but adds, “If you have it before I should bee content to have it againe otherwise you may please keep it.”

K Tinge, shade, particularly a slight tint.—“Imp. Dict.”

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