38 BIKDS OF NORFOLK. 



by greyhounds at Sprowston "some fifty or sixty years 

 back," is in itself a fact of no little interest; and 

 difficult as it has been to trace it in its many wanderings 

 from one collection to another, it has given me no little 

 satisfaction to discover it at last, where its value is so 

 fully appreciated, in the possession of Lord Sondes, at 

 Elmham. This specimen, a fine adult male, after its 

 capture by Sir Lambert Blackwell's greyhounds, was pre- 

 served at Easton Lodge, near Norwich, where Sir Lambert 

 then resided, and formed part of one of the oldest 

 collections of stuffed birds in Norfolk. Here it was seen 

 by Mr. Lubbock when a boy > as far back as the year 

 1809 or 1810, and was then in the possession of Sir 

 William Foster's father, to whom Sir Lambert Blackwell 

 had left the estate and the contents of his house. 

 Subsequently, as I am informed, the entire collection 

 was removed to the residence of the late Rev. Lambert 

 B. Foster, at Brundall, by whom it was sold by auction, 

 on his ceasing to reside in Norfolk. At that time most 

 of the birds were in a very bad condition, and amongst 

 others this bustard required renovation, and was accord- 

 ingly sent to Knight, of Norwich, to be " done up " for 

 the next owner, the Rev. C. Humfrey, of Wroxham, who 

 afterwards presented it, as Lord Sondes informs me, to 

 the Eev. Charles Penrice, of Plumstead Hall. On the 

 death of that gentleman, and the dispersion of his collec- 

 tion in 1857, when, as I have before stated, the chief 

 portion of his birds passed into my hands,* this bustard 

 was presented by Major Penrice to Lady Sondes, and 

 after having been again carefully restored by the late 

 John Sayer, of Norwich, in whose shop I examined it, 

 was placed in its latest resting place at Elinhain Hall. 

 At Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, there is a case of 



* See vol. i., p. 311, note, where this bird is, by mistake, 

 described as a female. 



