128 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



cabinet contained eggs 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. 

 It was at that time mistaken for a stork, and a reward 

 having been oifered, 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, Vas shot by a labourer at Kirtley, near 



