240 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



probable, also, that two out of the three stations above 

 mentioned, from their propinquity to one another, 

 consisted, as is the case with our heronries, of small 

 branch establishments from one parent colony, and 

 that, no doubt, centred at Horsey. 



At Salthouse, long prior to the drainage of the 

 marshes and the erection of a raised sea-bank, the 

 avocets had become exterminated by the same wanton 

 destruction of both birds and eggs as is yearly diminish- 

 ing the numbers of lesser terns and ringed plover on the 

 adjacent beach. I have conversed with an octogenarian 

 fowler and marshman named Piggott, who remembered 

 the " clinkers " (as the avocet was there called), 

 breeding in the marshes " by hundreds," and used con- 

 stantly to gather their eggs.* Mr. Dowell, also, was 

 informed by the late Harry Overton, a well known 

 gunner, in that neighbourhood, that in his young time 

 he used to gather the avocet's eggs, filling his cap, 

 coat pockets, and even his stockings ; and the poor 

 people thereabouts made puddings and pancakes of them. 

 The birds were also as recklessly destroyed, for the 

 gunners, to unload their punt guns, would sometimes 

 fire at and kill ten or twelve at a shot.f No wonder, 

 then, if the avocets thus constantly persecuted gradually 

 became scarce. It is stated, moreover, by Mr. Lubbock 

 that their feathers were much sought after to make 

 artificial flies. Here as in the previous instances, at 

 Horsey and Winterton, it is difficult to fix the exact 



* The egg figured by Hewitson ("Eggs of British Birds," 

 3rd edition, vol. ii.) from the late Mr. Salmon's collection, " was 

 obtained by him in Norfolk, where he had no doubt it was laid." 



f Some of these, probably, found their way into the London 

 Market, as Yarrell, speaking of the rarity of the avocet, says, 

 " Some years ago I was told that more than twenty specimena 

 were received at Leadenhall Market for sale within one month, 

 but now scarcely an example appears in a year." 



