Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk

No. V Dr. Browne to Merrett

[This letter which was originally printed in the “Posthumous Works,” will be found in MS. Sloane 1911-13, fol. 106, where it is headed in pencil as addressed to Sir Wm. Dugdale, but it was restored to its proper place by Wilkin in the 1836 Edition of the Works, i., p. 404.]

Honoured Sir

[Fol. 106.] I am sorry I have had [diuersions above] of such necessitie, as to hinder my more sudden salute since I receiued your last. I thank you for the sight of the Sperma Ceti, and such kind of effects from [Lightning & Thunder written above] I have known and about 4 yeares ago about this towne when I with many others saw fire-balls fly & go of when they met with resistance, and one carried away the tiles and boards of a leucomb Window of my owne howse, being higher then the neighbour howses & breaking agaynst it with a report like a good canon. I set downe that occurrence in this citty & country, & haue it somewhere [in crossed out] amongst my papers, and fragments of a woman’s hat that was shiuered into pieces of the bignesse of a groat. I haue still by mee a little of the spermaceti of our whale, as also the oyle & balsome wch I made with the oyle & spermaceti. Our whale was worth 500 lib. my Apothecarie got about fiftie pounds in one sale of a quantitie of sperm [see Note 51].

I made enumeration of the excretions of the oake which might bee obserued in england [see Note 112], because I conceived they would bee most obseruable if you set them downe together, not minding whether there were any addition by excrementum fungosum vermiculis scatens I only meant an vsuall excretion, soft & fungous at first & pale & sometimes couered in part with a fresh red growing close vnto the sprouts. first full of maggots in little woodden cells which afterwards turne into little reddish browne or bay flies. of the tubera indica vermiculis scatentia I send you a peece, they are as bigg as good Tennis-balls & ligneous.

The little elegant fucus [see Note 114] may come in as a difference of the abies, being somewhat like it, as also unto the 4 corrallium in Gerard of the sprouts whereof I could never find any sprouts wings Or leaves as in the abies whether fallen of I knowe not, though I call’d it icthyorachius or pisciculi spinam referens yet pray do you call it how you please I send you now the figure of a quercus mar. [inus] or alga which I found by the seashoare differing from the com̄on [see Note 114] as being denticulated & in one place there seemes to bee the beginning of some flower pod or seedvessell.

[Fol. 106 verso.] A draught of the morinellus marinus or sea doterell I now send you. the bill should not have been so black & the leggs more red, [see Note 28] & [the crossed out] a greater eye of dark red in the feathers of wing and back: it is lesse & differently colourd from the com̄on dotterell, wch [wee haue crossed out] cometh to us about March & September. these sea-dotterells are often shot near the sea.

A yarewhelp or barker [some words smeared out] [see Note 39] a marsh-bird the bill 2 inches long the legges about that length the bird of a brown or russet colour.

That which is knowne by the name of a bee-bird [see Note 117] is a litle dark gray bird I hope to get one for you.

That whch I call’d a betulæ carptor & should rather have calld it Alni carptor [see Note 48] whereof I sent a rude draught. it feeds upon alder [budds mucaments or written above] seeds which grow plentifully heere & they fly in little flocks.

That [calld by some a written above] whin-bird is a kind of ox eye butt the shining yellow spot on the back of the head [see Note 48] is scarce to bee well imitated by a pensill.

I confess for such litle birds I am much unsatisfied on the names giuen to many by countrymen, and vncertaine what to giue them myself, or to what classes of authors cleerly to reduce them. surely there are many found among us whch are not described; & therefore such whch you cannot well reduce may (if at all) bee set downe after the exacter nomination of small birds as yet of uncertain classe or knowledge.

I present you with a draught of a water-fowl not com̄on & none of our fowlers can name it [see p. 79 infra] the bill could not bee exactly expressed by a coale or black chalk, whereby the litle incuruitie [at the end written above] of the upper bill & small recurvitie of the lower is not discerned. the wings are very short, & it is finne footed. the bill is strong & sharp, if you name it not I am uncertaine what to call it pray consider this Anatula or mergulus melanoleucus rostro acuto.

[Fol. 107.] I send you also the heads of mustela or mergus mustelaris mas. et fæmina [see Note 21] called a wesel from some resemblance in the head especially of the female wch is brown or russet not black & white like the male. & from their praying quality upon small fish. I have found small eeles small perches & small muscles in their stomacks. Have you a sea phaysant [see Note 22] so com̄only calld from resemblance of an hen phaisant in the head & eyes & spotted marks on the wings & back. & wth a small bluish flat bill, tayle longer than other ducks, long winges crossing over the tayle like those of a long winged hawke.

Have you taken notice of a breed of porci solidi pedes.118 I first obserued them above xx yeares ago & they are still among us. [See also p. 80 infra.]

Our nerites or neritæ are litle ones [see Note 83].

I queried whether you had dentalia [see Note 83] becaus probably you might haue met with them in england. I neuer found any on our shoare butt one brought mee a few small ones with smooth with [sic] small shells from the shoare. I shall inquire further after them.

Urtica marina minor Johnst. tab. xviii. [see Note 90] haue found more than once by the sea side.

The hobby and the merlin would not bee omitted among hawkes the first coming to us in the spring the other about the autumn. Beside the ospray wee have a larger kind of agle, calld an erne [see Note 3]. I haue had many of them.

Worthy deare Sr, if I can do anything farther wch may bee seruiceable unto you you shall ever readily com̄and my endeauours; who am, Sr, Your humble & very respectfull seruant,

Tho. Browne.

Febr 6 [1668-9.]
Norwich.

Notes

118 Mr. Darwin writes (“Anim. and Plants under Domestication,” i., p. 78), that from the time of Aristotle to the present day, Solid-hoofed Swine have been occasionally observed in various parts of the world. Dr. Coues also says that this variety seems to be persistent in a Texas breed. See also Professor Struthers in the “Edin. New Phil. Journal,” April, 1863. The two distal phalanges of the two great toes, both front and back, in the examples described by Professor Struthers, were joined together, forming a single hoof-bearing bone. The next two phalanges were separate, and sometimes kept widely apart from each other by the introduction of a special ossicle. I have been told that about the year 1827, a breed of solid-footed swine existed at or near Upwell. By some it was thought that their flesh was not good for food because they were “uncloven.” Dr. Wren, in a note to Browne’s Pseudodoxia (book vi., chap. x.), says, “About Aug., 1625, at a farm 4 miles from Winchester, I beheld with wonder a great heard of swine, whole-footed, and taller than any other that ever I sawe.”