98 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



some rare Britisli Birds," in whicli he notices the recent 

 occurrence of two immature specimens at Yarmouth, 

 and describes the difference in their plumage as com- 

 pared with examples, at the same age, of Charadrius 

 hiaticula. Of our local authors, Hunt includes it for 

 the first time in his list of "Norfolk Birds," pub- 

 lished in Stacy's history of the county in 1829 ; and 

 under the name of the " Alexandrine plover," states that 

 " a beautiful one in the Norwich museum was killed at 

 Yarmouth.""^ When once it had been pointed out 

 as a rarity, however, and its distinctive features made 

 known, the Breydon gunners seem to have had no 

 difficulty in supplying specimens to collectors. In 

 the notes kindly supplied me by Mr. Joseph Clarke, 

 of Saffron Walden, I find one recorded as shot at 

 Yarmouth, on the 1st of May, 1831 (also noticed in Sir 

 W. Hooker's MS.) ; and of two specimens in the Saffiron 

 Walden museum, from the same locality, one was pro- 

 cured on the 1st of January, 1834, the other on the 1st 

 of February, 1836. Mr. Clarke also states that about 

 the same time in 1834 Mr. Hoy received one from 

 Yarmouth, but Mr. Hoy's collection, according to 

 Dr. Bree ("Field," vol. xxx., p. 465), does not now 

 contain a specimen of this bird. Mr. Eyton, in his 

 "History of the Rarer British Birds," published in 

 1836, says (p. 100) that he possesses " two specimens of 

 this bird, obtained near Yarmouth ;" and Mr. Gould 

 informs me that when he first began to collect British 

 birds, over thirty years ago, he was in the habit of 

 receiving weekly a basket of sandpipers and plovers 

 from the same locality, supplied by Harvey, a dealer at 

 Yarmouth, who at that time used to purchase specimens 



* In the British series of the Norwich tauseum are three 

 examples of this plover, but none of them seem likely to have 

 answered this description even when first mounted. 



