No. III [Fol. 40 Verso.]
“My third letter Sept xiii.”
Sr I receaued your courteous Letter and with all respects I now agayne salute you.
The mola piscis is almost yearely taken on our coast [see Note 58] this [last crossed out] year one was taken of about 2 hundred pounds wayght diuers of them I haue opened & haue found many lyce sticking close vnto thier gills whereof I send you some.
In your pinax I find onocrotalus or pellican [see Note 25] whether you meane those at St. James or others brought ouer or such as haue been taken or killed heere I knowe not. I haue one hangd up in my howse wch was shott in a fenne ten miles of about 4 yeares ago and because it was so rare some conjectured it might bee one of those which belonged vnto the King & flewe away.
Ciconia rarò hue aduolat. I haue seen two [see Note 14] one in a watery marsh 8 miles of, another shott whose case is yet to bee seen. [See Appendix D.]
Vitulus marinus. In tractibus borealibus et Scotia [see Note 53]. no raritie upon the coast of Norfolk at a lowe water I haue knowne them taken asleep vnder the cliffes. diuers haue been brought vnto mee. our seale is different from the Mediterranean seale. as hauing a rounder head a shorter and stronger body.
Rana piscatrix I haue often known taken on our coast & some very large [see Note 59].
Xiphias or gladius piscis or sword fish wee haue in our seas [see Note 55]. I haue the head of one which was taken not long ago entangled in the Herring netts the sword aboue 2 foot in length.
Among the whales you may very well putt in the spermacetus [see Note 51] or that remarkably peculiar whale which so aboundeth in spermaceti. about twelve years ago wee had one cast up on our shoare neer welles wch I discribed in a peculiar chapter in the last edition of [Fol. 41] my pseudodoxia epidemica. another was diuers yeares before cast up at Hunstanton. both whose heads are yet to bee seen.
Ophidion or at least ophidion nostras [see Note 69] com̄only called a sting fish hauing a small prickley finne running all along the back, & another a good way on the belly, with little black spotts at the bottom of the back finne if the fishermens hands bee touched or scrached with this venemous fish they grow paynfull and swell the figure hereof I send you in colours they are com̄on about cromer see Schoneveldeus de Ophidiis.
Piscis octogonius or octangularis answering the discription of Cataphractus Schoneveldei [see Note 66] only his is discribed with the finnes spread & when it was fresh taken & a large one howeuer this may bee nostras I send you one butt I haue seen much larger which fishermen haue brought mee.
Physsalus [see Note 89]. I send one which hath been long opened & shrunck & lost the colour when I tooke it upon the sea shoare it was full & plump answering the figure & discription of Rondeletius. there is also a like figure at the end of [Rondeletius crossed out] muffetus I haue kept them aliue butt obserued no motion [butt crossed out] except of contraction and dilation when it is fresh the prickles or brisles are of a brisk green & Amethest colours—some call it a sea mous.
Our mullet is white & imberbis [see Note 63] butt wee haue also a mullis barbatus ruber miniaceus or cinnaberinus somewhat rough & butt drye meat. there is of them maior & minor resembling the figures in Johnstonus tab xvii Rotbart.
Of the Acus marinus or needle fishes [see Note 64] I haue obserued 3 sorts. The Acus Aristotelis called heere an Addercock Acus maior or Garfish with a green verdigris backbone the other saurus Acui similis Acus sauroides or sauriformis as it may be called much answering to the discription of saurus Rondeletij in the hinder part much resembling a makerell opening one I found not the backbone green Johnstonus writes nearest to it in his Acus minor. I send you the head of one dryed butt the bill is broken I haue the whole draught in picture. this kind is more rare then the other wch are com̄on & is a rounder fish.
[Fol. 41 verso.] Vermes marini are large wormes [see Note 91] found 2 foot deep in the sea sands & are digged out at an ebbe for bayt.
The Avicula Maialis or may chitt [see Note 29] is a litle dark gray bird somewhat bigger then a stint which com̄eth in may or the later end of April & stayeth about a moneth. A marsh bird the legges & feet black without an heele the bill black about 3 quarters of an inch long they grow very fatt & are accounted a dayntie dish.
A Dorhawke a bird not full so bigge as a pigeon [see Note 42] somewhat of a woodcock colour & paned somewhat like an hawke with a bill not much bigger then that of a Titmouse [& very wide throat added above] known by the name of a dorhawke or prayer upon beetles, as though it were some kind of accipiter muscarius. in brief this accipiter cantharophagus or dorhawke [a word smeared out] is Avis Rostratula gutturosa, quasi coaxans, scarabæis vescens, sub vesperam volans, ouum speciosissimū [word smeared] excludens. I haue had many of them & am sorry I have not one to send you I spoake to a friend to shoote one butt I doubt they are gone ouer.
of the vpupa [see Note 35] diuers have been brought mee & some I haue obserued in these parts as I trauuyled about.
The Aquila Gesneri I sent [aliue added above] to Dr. Scarburg [see Note 3] who told mee it was kept in the colledge it was brought mee out of Ireland. I kept it 2 yeares in my howse I am sorry I haue only one fether of it to send you.
A shooing horn or Barker from the figure of the bill & barking note [see Note 38] a long made bird of white & blakish colour finne footed, a marsh bird & not rare some times of the yeare in marshland. it may upon vewe bee called Recuruirostra nostras or Auoseta much resembling the Auosettæ [species crossed out] species in Johnstonus tab (54). I send you the head in picture
[A smeared out] stone curliews I haue kept in large cages [see Note 37] the[y] haue a prettie shrill note, not hard to bee got in some parts of norfolk.
[Fol. 42] Haue you Scorpius marinus Schoneueldei [see Note 68]
haue you putt in the musca Tuliparū muscata108
That bird which I sayd much answered the discription of Garrulus Argentoratensis [see Note 49] I send you it was shott on a tree x miles of 4 yeares ago. it may well bee called the Parret Jay or Garrulus psittacoides speciosus. the colours are much faded. if you haue it before I should bee content to haue it agayne otherwise you may please to keep it.
Garrulus Bohemicus109 probably you haue a prettie handsome bird with the fine cinnaberin tipps of the wings some wch I haue seen heere haue the tayle tipt with yellowe wch is not in the discription.
I haue also sent you urtica mas [see Note 105] which I lately gathered at Golston by yarmouth where I found it to growe also 25 yeares ago. of the stella marina Testacea which I sent you [see Note 87] I do not find the figure in any booke.
I send you a few flies110 which some unhealthful yeares about the first part of september I haue obserued so numerous upon plashes in the marshes & marish diches that in a small compasse it were no hard matter to gather a peck of them I brought some what my box would hold butt the greatest part are scatterd lost or giuen away for memorie sake I writ on my box muscæ palustres Autumnales [See Appendix D.]
worthy Sr I shall be euer redie to serue you who am Sr your humble Seruant
Tho Browne.
Norwich, Sep 16. 1668.
Notes
108 It seems impossible to identify this insect; Merodon narcissi has been suggested, but Mr. Verrall, whom I consulted says, “certainly not Merodon, which probably was not known in Britain until about 1870,” and suggests the small fly Nemopoda. Mr. Bloomfield writes that the only fly of which he has seen any mention as having a musky or “excellent fragrant odour” is Sepsis cynipsea, which Kirby and Spence state on the authority of De Geer, “emits a fragrant odour of beaum” (balm); this species is very nearly allied to Nemopoda. Several Bees, for instance the Genus Prosopis, emit a strong scent of balm, and it is possible that Browne may have used the term “fly” in what is even now a popular sense, and that really some species of Bee may have called forth his remarks. It will be noticed that at p. 74 he speaks of it as a “small beelike flye.”
109 Mr. Stevenson, whom very little relating to Norfolk Ornithology escaped, was well acquainted with Sir Thomas Browne’s works, yet has in his “Birds of Norfolk” unaccountably overlooked this passage, and remarks that Browne does not appear to have noticed this species; he however not only refers to it as above, but evidently describes it from his personal observation. It is a very uncertain winter visitor to this county, but on rare occasions makes its appearance in considerable flocks. A remarkable instance of this occurred in the winter of 1866-7, when Mr. Stevenson, as the result of the examination of a very large series, contributed an exhaustive paper on the plumage of this handsome bird to the “Transactions of the Norf. and Nor. Nat. Soc.,” iii., pp. 326-344.
110 Mr. Verrall assures me that even in the present day it is quite impossible to recognise the species of Diptera described by persons unacquainted with the particular group, and that Browne’s remarks would apply to hundreds of species. It is possible that an Ephydra may be meant. This genus of small flies, says Mr. Verrall, abounds in such places as Browne describes, but it is likely that other species were with them.
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