28 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



in this county, although, when the term common was 

 really applicable to this species, it was frequently known 

 to do so, and the large woods at Hethel and Ashwelthorpe 

 are specially mentioned by Lubbock as amongst its former 

 haunts. A single bird has, however, been observed for the 

 last 14 or 15 years to return regularly to Cossey Park, 

 near Norwich, where I learn from Mr. Fountaine, of 

 Easton, it has been allowed to remain unmolested. A 

 very singular variety, a young male, was trapped at 

 Holkham in 1855, exhibiting a great deal of white about 

 the head, with whitey-brown feathers dotted all over the 

 body, the party colour extending even to the talons ; and 

 a somewhat similar example occurred in the autumn of 

 1861. The only adult specimens that have come under 

 my own notice, during the last twelve years, are a 

 remarkably dark-coloured female in the Dennis col- 

 lection* at Bury, killed near Thetford in 1852 ; one 

 shot at Filby on the 13th of February, 1861 ; and one at 

 Northrepps in 1862 (No. 18. a) in the Norwich museum. 



* The Eev. J. B. P. Dennis, whose sudden and premature death in 

 January, 1861, at the age of 45, was a great loss to science in more 

 than one field of research, was not only a most zealous and accom- 

 plished naturalist, but an amateur taxidermist of very considerable 

 excellence, and though residing chiefly at Bury St. Edmund's, 

 paid constant visits to Yarmouth at certain seasons, for the pur- 

 pose of collecting some of the rarer British birds wljich occur on 

 Breydon. At the same time, whilst a good many of his specimens 

 were thus the product of his own gun, he also left directions in 

 his absence with old John Thomas, the noted Yarmouth gunner, 

 to purchase anything out of the common way obtained in that 

 neighbourhood. By this means many good birds, which from the 

 local interest attaching to them, one could have wished had found 

 a place in the Norwich museum, passed into the adjoining county, 

 and in their admirable attitudes, and perfect condition of plumage, 

 (the Raptores more especially), testify to the patience and skill of 

 this scientific collector. Most of the cases are very carefully 

 ticketted with the age, sex, and locality of each specimen; but 

 as before alluded to in reference to the kite, such notes are 

 here and there wanting, and as too often happens under similar 



