BLACK-GEOUSE. 375 



kindly supplied me by Mr. George Master, of London, 

 I learn tliat a hybrid between a cock pheasant and a 

 grey hen was shot at Snettisham about the year 1850, 

 by Luffman, Captain Campbell's gamekeeper, which is 

 still preserved at the hall. From the occurrence of this 

 bird, Mr. Master procured a blackcock from Norway, 

 which was turned off on Captain Campbell's estate, and 

 some few years later, he says " that part of the country 

 was full of black game, and I have seen as many as 

 twenty blackcocks in a flight at Sandringham myself, 

 when shooting with the former owner." I have looked 

 in vain for any mention of this species in the " House- 

 hold Book" of the L'Estranges, but it is somewhat 

 remarkable that Sir Thomas Browne, though stating 

 that "the heath poult (black-grouse), common in the 

 north, is unknown here, as also the grouse," still adds, 

 ^* though I have heard some have been seen about 

 Lynn." The late Sir Fowell Buxton, as I am informed 

 by his old gamekeeper, Lawrance Banwell, better 

 known as "Old Larry," to those Cromer visitors who 

 " picnic" on the Beeston Hills, had a few pairs turned 

 off in that neighbourhood; but, although the soil was 

 well suited to them, and the heathery hills, bordered 

 by fir plantations, a very promising locality, yet the 

 range of these hills was far too circumscribed, and they 

 soon died off or were shot on adjacent manors. In 

 mentioning the name of " Old Larry" I cannot help 

 alluding to the great event of his life, and one of which 

 he is justly proud, in having been entrusted by the late 

 Sir Fowell Buxton, in the year 1838, with the arduous 

 and responsible task of bringing over from Sweden a 

 splendid collection of capercally or wood-grouse to 

 Scotland ; a present from Sir Fowell to Lord Breadall ane. 

 These fine birds had been collected with much trouble 

 and expense by Mr. L. Lloyd, as stated by Yarrell 

 (Brit. Bds., vol. ii., 2nd ed., p. 331), and thus com- 



