THOMAS MUFFETT. 275 



The above- quoted comments of Muffett show that he 

 was an accomphshed ornithologist, and far in advance of 

 his age ; it must moreover be remembered that he was 

 not writing a treatise on natural history but what has 

 been termed " a gossipy collection of maxims concerning 

 diet," and he no doubt could have given us far more 

 information concerning the habits of the birds he mentions 

 had he been minded to do so. Most of his observations 

 were evidently made at first hand, and he seems to have 

 travelled somewhat extensively in England, as witness 

 his remarks on the Godwit. His account of the Great 

 Bustard has often been quoted ; it was no doubt in Wilt- 

 shire, where he passed the latter portion of his life, that 

 he had watched them feeding, and that county w^as one 

 of the last strongholds of this remarkable bird, now for 

 many years extinct in the British Isles. His mention 

 of the Crane as breeding in the fens is confirmed by 

 Turner* and by the accounts of the City Chamberlain 

 of Norwich {Natural History of Norfolk ; Sir Thomas 

 Browne : p. 6),t amongst them on the 6th June, 1543, 

 appearing a charge for "a young pyper crane " from 

 HickHng. In Willughby's time, however, the Crane, 

 though still abundant, had probably ceased to breed in 

 this country, as he writes : " They come often to us in 

 England ; and in the Fen-countries in Lincohishire and 

 Cambridgeshire there are great flocks of them, but whether 

 or no they breed in England I cannot certainly determine 

 either of my own knowledge or from the relation of any 

 credible person." {The Ornithology of Francis Willughhy, 

 p. 274.) 



Muffett's ideas on migration were also apparently 

 correct, as he speaks of the condition of Woodcock and 

 Snipe "after their long flight from beyond the seas," 

 and this is the more remarkable as but the haziest notions 

 were entertained on this subject in his time, and as late 

 as 1703 we find the anonymous author of a tract entitled 



* cf. Evans's edition, p. 97. 



t Published with notes by Thomas Southwell, London, 1902. 



