76 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
difficult to imagine what became of them in the early 
morning, when the rain fell in torrents. The next day 
no trace whatever remained of our nocturnal visitants, 
which, with their marvellous instinct, seemed to have 
passed on, to a bird, to their winter quarters. 
As a delicacy for the table, this species deservedly 
stands in high estimation, and in earlier times, from such 
records as remain to us, appears to have been as highly 
valued. In the L’Estrange ‘ Household Book” for 
1520, we find the Vicar of Thornham’s servant receiving 
various gratuities for the bringing of plover, as pre- 
sents, and when purchased the prices may be gathered 
from the following items:—‘‘ Pd. for a crane and vj 
plovs, xxd.;” “yj plovs, xiiijd-;” “vj plovs, x1j4-;” and 
“iij plovs, vjt..”” At a Royal feast, also, at Kirtlinge,* 
Cambridgeshire, in September, 1577, we have xxviij 
plover purchased at xxxs-; yet, strange as it may seem 
to the modern epicure, at the very same festivities, in 
honour of our “good Queen Bess,” xvij gulls were 
five shillings and pigs at a shilling a piece. 
CHARADRIUS MORINELLUS, Linneus. 
DOTTEREL. 
Although by no means so numerous as in former 
days, the Dotterel, as a regular migrant, still visits us 
at the end of spring, and again a few months later, 
* See Extracts from ‘‘The Booke of the Household Charges 
and other Paiments laid out by the L. North, and his comande- 
ment: beginning the first day of January, 1575, and the 18 yere of 
our most gratius Soverain’s (Queen Elizabeth’s) raigne.” Com- 
municated to the Society of Antiquaries, in 1819, by William 
