Upupa or Hoopebird[35] so named from its note a gallant marked bird wch I have often seen & tis not hard to shoote them.
[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."
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 crossed out] salt.
[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.
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.
[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.
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.
[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.
[A bird calld Barker from the note it hath crossed out]