204 BIEDS OF NORFOLK. 



ments. To what cause, in particular, this may be 

 attributed it is difficult to say, but it is by no means 

 improbable that the increased persecution of ^nners 

 may render the old birds, when in company with their 

 young broods of the year, more difficult of access, 

 and also the fact that there is now much less ground 

 suitable to them, owing to improved drainage. Be 

 this as it may, it is evident that for the last eight or 

 ten years, at least, the spotted redshank has appeared 

 on our coast, with but few exceptions, during the vernal 

 migration, and consequently the majority of birds 

 obtained have exhibited, more or less, the distinctive 

 characteristics of their breeding plumage.* 



Under the name of the Cambridge godwit, in Sir 

 W. Hooker's MS., I find the first notice of the 

 occurrence of this species in Norfolk, a specimen shot 

 near Yarmouth, on the 29th of October, 1818 ; and in 

 Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear's "Catalogue" (1824-5) 

 it is thus mentioned, " A bird of this species in autumn 

 plumage, was killed at Yarmouth, and preserved by 

 Mr. Youell. Another shot, near Ipswich, is now in 

 the British Museum. Mr. Wigg, of Yarmouth, has 

 also seen two other specimens which were shot near 

 that town." On the 22nd of September, 1828, Mr. 

 Rising, of Horsey, killed three out of a flock of twenty- 

 five which appeared in that neighbourhood; and in 

 Hunt's List, in 1829, under the name of the " spotted 

 snipe," one specimen is said to have been procured at 



* Of the nesting habits of this species Mr. Hewitson (" British 

 Birds' Eggs," 3rd ed., vol. ii., p. 326), gives a most interesting 

 description from the pen of the late Mr. Wolley, who discovered 

 it in northern Lapland, breeding in the midst of the forests ; and 

 to quote his own words, "here is one of its most unexpected 

 singularities — a marsh-bird choosing the driest possible situation, 

 even hills of considerable height, and covered with forest timber." 



