[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.
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.
[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.
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.
[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.
Barnacles[18] Brants Branta [wer struck out] are com̄on
[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.
sheldrakes sheledracus jonstoni
Barganders a noble coloured fowle vulpanser wch breed in cunny burrowes about norrold & other places.
[Fol. 9.] Wild geese Anser ferus.