246 BIKDS OP NORFOLK. 



In Mr. E. S. Preston's possession at Yarmouth is a 

 specimen formerly belonging to his uncle Mr. C. Preston, 

 of that town, which was shot on Breydon in May, 1823, 

 by old John Thomas, a noted gunner on those waters ; 

 the same bird referred to by the late Mr. Hoy, in a letter 

 to Selby, as published by Dr. Bree in the " Field " (vol. 

 xxx., p. 385), in that gentleman's description of Mr. 

 Hoy's collection at Stoke Nayland. 



Again in 1824, according to the Messrs. Paget, 

 another was shot " two miles up the North river " 

 (Bure), which, at the time their " Sketch " was pub- 

 lished, was said to be in Mrs. Baker's collection.* In 

 all probability this was the same bird which, as Mr. 

 Rising informs me, made its appearance at Horsey, 

 for one day only, in the summer of 1824, and escaped 

 uninjured. It is also, I imagine, the same which is 

 thus incidentally referred to by Yarrell " My own 

 specimen, from which the figure and description here 

 given was derived, was obtained in the London market 

 in July, 1824, and was sent up for sale from Lincoln- 

 shire ; while this bird was in the hands of Mr. Lead- 

 beater for preservation, another was received from 

 Norfolk. In the intestines of this last specimen, which 

 I examined, was a species of tape-worm six inches in 

 length, broad, flat, and jointed." It is also stated by 

 Yarrell, on the authority of Mr. Lubbock, that " a pair 

 were shot by Mr. Salmon, at Stoke Perry, in the spring 



ungraceful. The young stilt, he says, "is able to walk almost 

 immediately on leaving the egg ; one we found was capable of 

 moving about, while the other three were struggling to free 

 themselves from the shell. The nest is composed of a few bits of 

 dead reed or grass. The complement of eggs laid by one bird is 

 four." 



* This is no doubt the specimen mentioned by Hunt in 1829, 

 as in Mr. C. S. Girdlestone's collection at Yarmouth, which passed 

 into the hands of his sister Mrs. John Baker. 



