128 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
cabinet contained eges of the crane, stork, and other 
rarities all obtained in this county. After describing 
the house and garden as “a paradise and cabinet of 
rarities,’ consisting of “‘medails, books, plants, and 
natural things,” Evelyn further adds, “amongst other 
curiosities Sir Thomas had a collection of ye eggs of 
all the foule and birds he could procure, that country 
(especially the promontary of Norfolck) being frequented, 
as he said, by severall kinds, which seldome or never go 
farther into the land, as cranes, storkes, eagles, and a 
variety of water foule.” 
At the present day the crane can be reckoned only 
as a rare and accidental visitant to this county, appear- 
ing singly, instead of in flocks, and at uncertain inter- 
vals; for the most part either in spring or autumn, on 
its migratory course, or by chance, as in olden times, 
during hard winters. Of such specimens as are still 
preserved in local collections, or of which any records 
exist, as far as I am aware, the earliest in point of date 
is a very light coloured bird in the possession of Mr. 
Newcome of Feltwell, in which neighbourhood it was 
killed in August, 1836. This bird, as Mr. Alfred 
Newton was informed some few years since by a man 
who had seen it at large on several occasions, frequented 
the “ fen” in the harvest time, and used to keep during 
the day in the standing barley, on which it fed, but in 
the morning and evening it went down to the water. 
lt was at that time mistaken for a stork, and a reward 
having been offered, it was shot by a shoemaker named 
Hudson, who laid wait for it as it walked out of the 
barley. The sex does not seem to have been noticed at 
the time, but it was stuffed by Reynolds, of Thetford, 
for the late Mrs. Flower, of Feltwell, at whose death it 
passed into the hands of its present owner. 
A female (ascertained by dissection), in Mr. Gurney’s 
collection, was shot by a labourer at Kirtley, near 
