40 BIEDS OF NOEFOLIC. 



mentioned by most of our local authorities as pur- 

 chased by the late Mr. Lilly Wigg in the Yarmouth 

 market. This s^Decimen, however, according to contem- 

 porary evidence, was plucked and eaten and its claim 

 to a place in the Norfolk list must rest entirely on the 

 credibility of the statements respecting it. Mr. Lilly 

 Wigg, the main authority, was a naturalist resident at 

 Yarmouth early in the present century, and in Sir 

 William Hooker's MS. notes from 1807 to 1840 

 *^ touching the Natural History of Yarmouth and its 

 environs," I find Mr. Wigg's name on the title page, 

 associated with that of the late Mr. Dawson Turner, 

 and others, as joint contributors ; whilst amongst the en- 

 tries, signed with the initials "L.W.," is, "Red-breasted 

 goose shot near Yarmouth." Mr. Hunt, who gives a 

 very accurately coloured plate of this species in his 

 " British Birds," published in 1815, and was well aware 

 of its rarity in collections, remarks, '^Mr. Wigg, of 

 Yarmouth, informs us that he purchased a specimen in 

 the Market-place of that borough a few years since." 

 Again in 1824, Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear (who 

 alone give the date and locality), state that "Mr. Wigg 

 had a specimen of this rare bird, which was killed at 

 Halvergate, in Norfolk, in the year 1805. He says its 

 flesh was well flavoured ;" and in 1834, the Messrs. Paget 

 in their Yarmouth ^'List" wrote, " Mr. Wigg accidentally 

 bought a specimen of this bird in the market which, 

 to his constant regret, he plucked and cooked." It 

 seems almost incredible that any naturahst could be 

 guilty of such an act, considering the remarkable ap- 

 pearance of this species, both as to the bright tints of 

 its plumage and its small size, when compared with 

 other wild geese, but the following explanation, as given 

 by Mr. Dawson Turner to Mr. J. H. Gurney, after Mr. 

 Wigg's decease, is, I have no doubt, correct. The latter 

 gentleman it seems had a habit, arising from a curiosity. 



