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.
[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.
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.]]
[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.
[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.