Natural History of Norfolk.
NOTES[H] ON CERTAIN BIRDS FOUND IN NORFOLK.
[H] The heading adopted by Wilkin, for which I cannot find that he had any authority, is certainly misleading, for the brief and fragmentary notes which follow, although of great interest, can hardly be called "An Account of the Birds (or Fishes) found in Norfolk," as there are many species of each inhabiting or visiting the county which must have been well-known to Browne, but of which we find no mention.
[MSS. SLOAN. 1830. FOL. 5-19. AND 31.]
[The first four pages in the volume of Manuscript consist of two inserted letters from Merrett to Browne (see [Appendix A.]); these are on ordinary letter paper 6-1/4 inches by 7 inches. The notes commence on folio 5 and are continued to folio 19; one leaf, containing an account of the Roller (numbered 31), is bound up with the notes on the Fishes, &c., which are numbered consecutively with the Birds; the paper of the volume is foolscap, 11-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches, and written, with a few exceptions, which appear to be subsequent additions, on the right-hand opening only. There are four folios after the Birds, the first of which is blank; the others, numbered 20, 21, and 22, contain rough memoranda on the Birds and Fishes, the substance of which is embodied in the other notes; the Fishes commence on folio 23. There are many erasures, interlineations, and substituted words which indicate hasty writing, and the alterations are not in all cases complete, thus rendering the sense occasionally obscure; these emendations I have thought it best to preserve as indicating the author's line of thought. In the foot-notes which follow I have endeavoured to identify the species treated of. This, notwithstanding the kind assistance of the friends whose help I gratefully acknowledge, I may not in all cases have successfully accomplished; the conclusions arrived at are occasionally only conjectural, and it may be that in some instances I have erred. Should such be the case I must plead in excuse the difficulty arising from vagueness of description, the frequent use of vernacular names which have long since become obsolete ([see Note 22]), and the imperfection of the record. This especially applies to the Marine Animals, and one of my correspondents rightly remarks that "the early accounts of marine beasts are so vague, and the figures (where referred to) so incomplete and often fanciful, that it is difficult even to make out the family, to say nothing of genera and species." Any assistance or correction in this respect would be gladly received by me.]
[Fol. 5.] I willingly obey your comands[1] in setting down such birds fishes & other animals wch for many years I have observed in Norfolk.
[1] With regard to the probable origin of these notes (see "Introduction," [p. xxi.]). The opening passage was probably addressed to the deceased correspondent who had asked his assistance, whereas his first [letter to Merrett] seems to indicate that the offer of help to him came spontaneously from Browne ("I take ye boldness to salute you," &c.), and was not in response to Merrett's request.
Beside the ordinarie birds which keep constantly in the country many are discouerable both in winter & summer wch are of a migrant nature & exchange their seats according to the season.[2] those wch come in the spring coming for the most part from the southward those wch come in the Autumn or winter from the northward. so that they are obserued to come in great flocks with a north east wind & to depart with a south west. nor to come [in struck out] only in flocks of one kind butt teals woodcocks felfars thrushes & small birds to come & light together. for the most part some hawkes & birds of pray attending them.
[2] Browne seems to have had on the whole a fairly correct idea with regard to the migratory movements of the birds on the Norfolk coast where peculiar facilities exist for such observations, but of course he could have formed no notion of the extent to which they prevail, perhaps no species being altogether sedentary. The general line of the autumn migration for those which spend their summer in Northern Europe is south or south-west, returning in the spring by the reverse route; those which visit us in spring from Western Europe, or countries lying still more to the eastward, adopt what is known as the east to west route, and reverse the direction in the autumn; but this latter is as nothing compared with the vast number of immigrants by both routes in the early autumn, at which time, especially, the movements are so exceedingly complex that it would be impossible here to attempt to explain them, and the reader must be referred to Mr. Eagle Clarke's digest of the Reports of the Migration Committee of the British Association ("Report Brit. Ass. for 1876," pp. 451-477).