A yarwhelp[39] so thought to bee named from its note a gray bird intermingled with some yellowish [whitish written above] fethers [the bill crossed out] somewhat long legged & the bill about an inch & half. esteemed a dayntie dish.
[39] This paragraph is written on the back of fol. 16. The Yarwhelp is the name by which the Black-tailed Godwit, a species which formerly nested in abundance in the marshes about Horsey and some adjacent localities in the Broads, was known. It virtually ceased to nest here sometime between the years 1829 and 1835, but perhaps an instance or two may have occurred rather later. It was also known as the "Shrieker." Browne again refers to this bird in the fourth [letter to Merrett], where he calls it "barker" (a name which he had no doubt erroneously previously applied to the Avoset), or "Latrator, a marshbird, about the bigness of a Godwitt," and once again under the name of "Yare-whelp, or barker," in his [fifth letter]; it may be that the name "barker" was applied indiscriminately to either species. As Lubbock names this bird as one of the "five species in particular" which "used formerly to swarm in our marshes" ("Fauna of Norfolk"), one would have thought Browne would have been better acquainted with it than seems to have been the case from the hesitating way in which he uses the vernacular name.
Loxias or curuirostra a bird a litle bigger than a Thrush of fine colours & prittie note [the m crossed out] differently from other birds, the [lower crossed out] upper & lower bill crossing each other. of a very tame nature, comes about the beginning of summer. I have known them kept in cages butt not to outliue the winter.
A kind of coccothraustes calld a [cobble crossed out] coble bird[40] bigger than a Thrush, finely coloured & shaped like a Bunting [it comes crossed out] it is [sometimes crossed out] chiefly [written above] seen [about crossed out] in sum̄er about cherrie time.
[40] The Hawfinch was evidently not a very well-known bird in Browne's time, either to himself or Willughby; the latter says, "it is said to build in holes of trees." It has steadily increased in frequency as a breeding species with us for the last twenty years.
[fol. 16 verso.] A small bird of prey[41] [something smeared out here] calld a birdcatcher about the bignesse of a Thrush and linnet coloured with a longish white bill & sharpe of a very feirce & wild nature though kept in a cage & fed with flesh. [Added after in same hand but fresher ink] a kind of Lanius [Lanius crossed out and written more distinctly under].
[41] This paragraph is written on the back of fol. 16. The Red-backed Shrike, Lanius collurio, is the only species of Lanius mentioned by Browne; it is singular that he omits all mention of another bird, and that an essentially Norfolk species which would have been new to the Pinax—the Bearded Titmouse, afterwards known to Edwards as the Least Butcher Bird. Browne certainly sent a drawing of this bird to Ray, who in his "Collection of English words not generally used" (1674), as pointed out by Mr. Gurney, mentions it as a "little Bird of a tawny colour on the back, and a blew head, yellow bill, black legs, shot in an Osiar yard, called by Sr. Tho. for distinction sake silerella," the drawing of which he acknowledges he had received. Pennant, 1768 ("Brit. Zool.," i., p. 165), follows Edwards ("Nat. Hist. of Birds," &c., 1745), who classes it with the Laniidæ, and it was not till long after, and as the result of much discussion, that it was finally established as the only representative of a new genus under the name of Panurus biarmicus. The local name is Reed Pheasant, but Browne's name of Silerella seems an exceedingly appropriate one.
[[p. 17] resumed.] A Dorhawke[42] or kind of Accipiter muscarius conceiued to haue its name from feeding upon flies & beetles. of a woodcock colour but paned like an Hawke a very litle poynted bill. large throat. breedeth with us & layes a maruellous handsome spotted egge. Though I haue opened many I could neuer find anything considerable in their mawes. caprimulgus.
[42] Browne seems to have been much interested in this remarkable bird, and mentions it again in his [second] and [third letters to Merrett], especially in the latter; he calls it Caprimulgus, but conceives it to be a kind of Accipiter, muscarius, or cantharophagus, "in brief" [?] "avis rostratula gutturosa, quasi coxans, scarabæis vescens, sub vesperam volans, ovum speciassisimum excludens," a fair specimen of the descriptive method of the time. Although he used the name Caprimulgus, it will be observed that he does not mention the "vulgar error" which led to its being so called. Merrett includes this species in the Pinax under the name of "Caprimulgus, or the Goat-sucker," but in a letter to Browne tells him he knows no Hawk called a Dorhawk.
[Fol. 18.] Auis Trogloditica[43] or Chock a small bird mixed of black & white & breeding in cony borrouges whereof the warrens are full from April to September. at which time they leaue the country. they are taken with an Hobby and a net and are a very good dish.