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, xx d -;" " vj plovs, xiiij d -;" "vj plovs, xij d -;" and 

 ( ' iij plovs, vj d -." At a Royal feast, also, at Kirtlinge,* 

 Cambridgeshire, in September, 1577, we have xxviij 

 plover purchased at xxx 8 - ; yet, strange as it may seem 

 to the modern epicure, at the very same festivities, in 

 honour of our "good Queen Bess," xviij gulls were 

 provided at a cost of iiiijli. x s - ; and this with lambs at 

 five shillings and pigs at a shilling a piece. 



CHARADRIUS MORINELLUS, 

 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 



