The female is called a reeve, without any ruff about the neck, lesser than the other, and hardly to be got. They are almost all cocks, and, put together, fight and destroy each other; and prepare themselves to fight like cocks, though they seem to have no other offensive part but the bill. They lose their ruffs about the autumn, or beginning of winter, as we have observed, keeping them in a garden from May till the next spring. They most abound in Marshland, but are also in good number in the marshes between Norwich and Yarmouth.

Of picus martius, or wookspeck, many kinds. The green, the red, the leucomelanus, or neatly marked black and white, and the cinereus9 or dun-coloured little bird, called a nuthack. Remarkable, in the larger, are the hardness of the bill and skull, and the long nerves which tend unto the tongue, whereby it shooteth out the tongue above an inch out of the mouth, and so licks up insects. They make the holes in trees without any consideration of the winds or quarters of heaven; but as the rottenness thereof best affordeth convenience.

Black heron.1 Black on the sides, the bottom of the neck, with white grey on the outside, spotted all along with black on the inside. A black coppe of small feathers some a span long; bill pointed and yellow, three inches long; back, heroncoloured, intermixed with long white feathers; the strong feathers black; the breast black and white, most black; the legs and feet not green, but an ordinary dark cock colour.

The number of rivulets, becks, and streams, whose banks are beset with willows and alders, which give occasion of easier fishing and stooping to the water, makes that handsome-coloured bird abound, which is called alcedo ispida, or the king-fisher. They build in holes about gravel-pits, wherein is to be found a great quantity of small fish-bones; and lay very handsome round and, as it were, polished eggs.

6 picus martius.] The black woodpecker, extremely rare in this country. "Habitat vix in Anglia," says Linnæus. 7 red.] Probably P. major, L. 8 leucomelanus.] P. minor, L.

9 cinereus.] Sitta Europea, Lin. Nuthatch.

1 black heron.] No British species appears to correspond so nearly with Dr. Browne's description as Ardea Purpurea.

An hobby-bird; so called because it comes either with, or a little before, the hobbies, in the spring. Of the bigness of a thrush, coloured and paned like a hawk; marvellously subject to the vertigo, and are sometimes taken in those. fits.

Upupa, or hoopebird, so named from its note; a gallant marked bird, which I have often seen, and it is not hard to shoot them.

Ringlestones,3 a small white and black bird, like a wagtail, and seems to be some kind of motacilla marina, common about Yarmouth sands. They lay their eggs in the sand and shingle, about June, and, as the Eringo diggers tell me, not set them flat, but upright, like eggs in salt.

The arcuata or curlew, frequent about the sea-coast.

There is also a handsome tall bird, remarkably eyed, and with a bill not above two inches long, commonly called a stone curlew ; but the note thereof more resembleth that of a green plover, and breeds about Thetford, about the stone and shingle of the rivers,

Avoseta called [a] shoeing-horn, a tall black and white bird, with a bill semicircularly reclining or bowed upward; so that it is not easy to conceive how it can feed; answerable unto the avoseta Ibalorum, in Aldrovandus, a summer marshbird, and not unfrequent in Marshland.

A yarwhelp, so thought to be named from its note, a grey bird intermingled with some whitish yellowish feathers, somewhat long-legged, and the bill about an inch and a half; esteemed a dainty dish.

Loxias or curvirostra, a bird a little bigger than a thrush, of fine colours and pretty note, differently from other birds, the upper and lower bill crossing each other; of a very tame nature; comes about the beginning of summer. I have known them kept in cages; but not to outlive the winter.

2 hobby-bird.] Surely this may be yunx torquilla, L. the wryneck; the singular motion of its head and neck was probably attributed to vertigo.

3 ringlestones.] Charadrius hiaticula, L. The ring dotterel. Plentiful near Blakeney.-G.

arcuata.] Scolopax arquata, L. VOL. IV.

5 curlew.] Charadrius œdicnemus, L. The great or Norfolk plover, or thickkneed bustard.

yarwhelp.] Scolopax Ægocephala, L. is called the yarwhelp :--but the bill is four inches long.

7 lorias.] The crossbill. virostra, L.

Y

Loxia cur

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A kind of coccothraustes, called a coble-bird, bigger than a thrush, finely coloured and shaped like a bunting. It is chiefly seen in summer, about cherry-time.

A small bird of prey, called a birdcatcher, about the bigness of a thrush, and linnet-coloured, with a longish white bill, and sharp; of a very fierce and wild nature, though kept in a cage, and fed with flesh;-a kind of lanius.

A dorhawk or kind of accipiter muscarius, conceived to have its name from feeding upon flies and beetles; of a woodcock colour, but paned like a hawk; a very little pointed bill; large throat; breedeth with us; and lays a marvellous handsome spotted egg. Though I have opened many, I could never find any thing considerable in their maws. Caprimulgus.

Avis trogloditical or chock, a small bird, mixed of black and white, and breeding in, coney-burrows; whereof the warrens are full from April to September; at which time they leave the country. They are taken with an hobby and a net; and are a very good dish.

Spermalegous rooks, which, by reason of the great quantity of corn-fields and rook groves, are in great plenty. The young ones are commonly eaten; sometimes sold in Norwich market, and many are killed for their livers, in order to the cure of the rickets.

Crows, as every where; and also the corvus variegatus, or pied crow, with dun aud black interchangeable. They come in the winter, and depart in the summer; and seem to be the same which Clusius describeth in the Faro Islands, from whence perhaps these come. I have seen them very common in Ireland; but not known in many parts of England.

Corvus major; ravens; in good plenty about the city; which makes so few kites to be seen hereabout. They build in woods very early, and lay eggs in February.

Among the many monedulas or jackdaws, I could never in these parts observe the pyrrhocorax or Cornish chough, with

4

red legs and bill, to be commonly seen in Cornwall; and, though there be here very great store of partridges, yet the French red-legged partridge is not to be met with.3 The ralla or rail, we have counted a dainty dish; as also no small number of quails. The heathpoult, common in the north, is unknown here, as also the grouse; though I have heard some have been seen about Lynn.. The calandrier or greatcrested lark, (galerita) I have not met with here," though with three other sorts of larks;-the ground-lark, wood-lark, and tit-lark.

Stares or starlings, in great numbers. Most remarkable in their numerous flocks, which I have observed about the autumn, when they roost at night in the marshes, in safe places, upon reeds and alders; which to observe, I went to the marshes about sunset; where standing by their usual place of resort, I observed very many flocks flying from all quarters, which, in less than an hour's space, came all in, and settled in innumerable numbers in a small compass.

Great variety of finches and other small birds, whereof one very small, called a whin-bird, marked with fine yellow spots, and lesser than a wren. There is also a small bird, called a chipper, somewhat resembling the former, which comes in the spring, and feeds upon the first buddings of birches and other early trees.

A kind of anthus, goldfinch, or fool's coat, commonly called a draw-water, finely marked with red and yellow, and a white bill, which they take with trap-cages, in Norwich gardens, and, fastening a chain about them, tied to a box of water, it makes a shift, with bill and leg, to draw up the water in to it from the little pot, hanging by the chain about a foot below.

On the 14th of May, 1664, a very rare bird was sent me, killed about Crostwick, which seemed to be some kind of jay. The bill was black, strong, and bigger than a jay's; somewhat yellow claws, tipped black; three before and one claw behind. The whole bird not so big as a jay.

3 French, &c.] Our Norfolk sportsmen can bear witness that this species is now to be found in various parts of the county.

4 heathpoult.] Or black grouse.

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here.] Nor any one else, in England, if he refers to alauda cristata, which is the A. sylvestris galerita of Frisch.

The head, neck, and throat, of a violet colour; the back and upper parts of the wing, of a russet yellow; the fore part of the wing, azure; succeeded downward by a greenish blue; then on the flying feathers, bright blue; the lower parts of the wing outwardly, of a brown; inwardly, of a merry blue; the belly, a light faint blue; the back, toward the tail, of a purple blue; the tail, eleven feathers of a greenish colour; the extremities of the outward feathers thereof, white with an eye of green.-Garrulus argentoratensis.

6 garrulus argentoratensis.] Coracias garrula, L. The roller.