The great & noble kind of Agle calld Aquila Gesneri[3] I have not seen in this country but one I met with [with crossed out] in this country brought from ireland wch I [presented unto struck out] kept 2 yeares, feeding it with whelpes cattes ratts & the like. in all that while not giving it any water wch I afterwards presented unto the [colledge of physitians at London struck out] my worthy friend Dr Scarburgh.
[3] The "Aquila" of Gesner here referred to is evidently the Golden Eagle, which species Browne is careful to mention that he had not met with in this county, and that the specimen he sent to Dr. Scarburgh, more than once mentioned, was brought from Ireland. This bird has never been recorded alive in Norfolk. Immature White-tailed Eagles, the "Halyætus" of the text, still occur almost every autumn or winter on this coast, but no mature example has hitherto been killed. Browne's friend, Sir Charles Scarburgh (1616-1694), was born in London, and is buried at Cranford, in Middlesex. He seems to have been greatly distinguished as an anatomist and physician. He was a friend of William Harvey, whom he succeeded as Lumleyan Lecturer at the College of Physicians (of which he was elected a fellow in 1650). Harvey, out of regard for his "lovinge friend" Dr. Scarburgh, bequeathed to him his "little silver instruments of surgerie" and his velvet gown. ("Dict. of Nat. Biog.") The Golden Eagle sent him by Browne was kept in the College of Physicians in Warwick Lane for two years.
of other sorts of Agles there are severall kinds especially of the Halyætus or fenne Agles some of 3 yards & a quarter from the extremitie of the wings. whereof one being taken aliue grewe so tame that it went about the yard feeding on fish redherrings flesh & any offells without the least trouble.
There is also a lesser sort of Agle called an ospray[4] wch houers about the fennes & broads & will dippe his [foot crossed out] claws & take up a fish oftimes for wch his foote is made of an extraordinarie roughnesse for the better fastening & holding of it & the like they will do unto cootes.
[4] This species is a not unfrequent autumn visitor to the Broads and Rivers of Norfolk. Browne names it correctly, but there was much confusion with regard to this species in the minds of the old authors. Willughby knew the bird and calls it the "Bald Buzzard," but in describing its nesting site and eggs (probably not on his own authority,) evidently confounds it with the Marsh Harrier, for he says that "it builds upon the ground among reeds, and lays three or four large white eggs of a figure exactly elliptical, lesser than hens' eggs." [See Note 6.]
[Fol. 6.] Aldrovandus takes particular notice of the great number of Kites[5] about London & about the Thames. wee are not without them heare though not in such numbers. there are also the gray & bald Buzzard[6] [wch the all wth crossed out] of all wch the great number of broad waters & warrens makes no small number & more than in woodland counties.
[5] The Glede, or Puttock, of Turner, once so plentiful, is now only an extremely rare visitor to Norfolk. In 1815, it appears from Hunt ("British Ornithology"), not to have been uncommon, but the same authority in his list of Norfolk Birds contributed to Stacey's "History" of that County, speaks of the Kite as having in 1829 become extremely rare. It probably ceased to nest in this County about the year 1830, or perhaps a little later. Browne's reason for its comparative scarcity about the City of Norwich, viz., the abundance of Ravens mentioned at [p. 27] infra, is very interesting to us in the present day when Kites and Ravens are almost equally rare.
[6] It seems likely that Browne here refers to two species of Harrier, the Grey Buzzard being the male of the Hen Harrier (including of course Montagu's Harrier which was not discriminated till long after) in its grey adult plumage, whereas the Marsh Harrier, with its light yellow head, to which the word "bald" as then used might well be applied, would stand for the "Bald Buzzard." The Harriers, which were till long after the time he wrote extremely numerous, are generally called "Buzzards" by the natives, and it will be noticed at [p. 15] infra, that what is doubtless intended for the Marsh Harrier is spoken of as an enemy to the Coots; also at [p. 56], it is said that young Otters "have been found in the Buzzards nests," a very likely circumstance with so fierce a bird, and one of which I have an impression I have heard in recent years. The Hen Harrier is now an extremely rare bird with us; the Marsh Harrier still occasionally nests in the Broads, and Montagu's Harrier now and then attempts to rear a brood, but even should the parents succeed in escaping it is very seldom they carry their young with them. Professor Newton has kindly favoured me with the following additional interesting note on this bird. "The Marsh Harrier is certainly the 'Balbushardus' of Turner (1544), which, though he says it is bigger and longer than the ordinary Buteo, has a white patch on the head and is generally of a dark brown (fuscus) colour, hunting the banks of rivers, pools, and marshes, living by the capture of Ducks, and the black birds which the English call Coots (Coutas). This he, Turner, has himself very often seen, and he describes its habits correctly; adding that it also takes Rabbits occasionally. Gesner, 1555, quotes Turner, but refers the Bald Buzzard to the Osprey (which he figures), and so the mistake began. Certainly Willughby's Bald Buzzard is the Osprey, but his book was not published when Browne wrote."
Cranes[7] are often seen here in hard winters especially about the champian & feildie part it seems they have been more plentifull for in a bill of fare when the maior entertaind the duke of norfolk I meet with Cranes in a dish.
[7] In the present day the Crane is only a rare straggler to this country generally at the seasons of its migration; that it was in times past abundant in suitable localities there is ample evidence; that it also bred in the fens of the Eastern Counties there is no reason to doubt, but very little direct evidence is forthcoming, therefore every fact bearing upon this point is of value. Had Sir Thomas Browne written with the intention of publishing his observations he would doubtless have told us much about this grand bird, which would have been of the greatest interest to modern ornithologists, but even the above brief remarks, as will be seen, are worthy of note.