252 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
Even in this short list of specimens, the young birds 
of the year, obtained in August and September, are 
the most numerous;* and although I have heard of 
their being seen occasionally in winter in the neighbour- 
hood of Lynn, I do not imagine that they are more 
numerous at that season than in either spring or 
autumn. 
Mr. Rising informs me that their cries, when dis- 
turbed in the marshes, very closely resembled the 
mewing of a cat. 
Both by Ray and Pennant, and amongst later 
authors by Bewick and Montagu, the name of yar- 
whelp or yarwhip is associated with this species, and 
it is no doubt the same to which Sir Thomas Brownet 
refers in a letter to Dr. Merrett} [December 29th, 1668], 
in which he asks, “have you a yarwhelp,$ barker, or 
latrator, a marsh bird about the bigness of a godwitt ?” 
and in his general list of species he remarks—“ Godwyts, 
taken chiefly in Marsh-land; though other parts are 
not without them; accounted the daintiest dish in 
England; and, I think, for the bigness of the biggest 
price.” In support of this statement, it may be mentioned 
that Pennant describes them as “ taken in the fens, in 
the same season, with ruffs and reeves, and when fattened 
* Even prior to their extinction in Norfolk, Messrs. Sheppard 
and Whitear speak of a large flock of these birds which appeared 
at Yarmouth in October, 1819. 
+ Wilkin’s edition of his works, vol i., p. 403. 
t Merrett in his “ Pinax” (1667), includes (p. 173) “ Attagen, 
a Godwit * * * inagro—Lincoln ;” but his reference to a plate 
of Jonston’s “ Theatrum universale de Avibus,” wherein is figured, 
under the former name, the hazel grouse (Tetrao bonasia) 
shows that at that time the idea of a godwit was not very well 
defined among book-naturalists. 
§ “Whelp Moor,” near Lakenheath, probably derived its name 
from this species. 
