252 BIRDS OF NOKPOLK. 



Even in this short list of specimens, the young birds 

 of the year, obtained in August and September, are 

 the most numerous;* and although I have heard of 

 their being seen occasionally in winter in the neighbour- 

 hood of Lynn, I do not imagine that they are more 

 numerous at that season than in either spring or 

 autumn. 



Mr. Eising informs me that their cries, when dis- 

 turbed in the marshes, very closely resembled the 

 mewing of a cat. 



Both by Bay and Pennant, and amongst later 

 authors by Bewick and Montagu, the name of yar- 

 whelp or yarwhip is associated with this species, and 

 it is no doubt the same to which Sir Thomas Brownef 

 refers in a letter to Dr. MerrettJ [December 29th, 1668], 

 in which he asks, "have you a yarwhelp, barker, or 

 latrator, a marsh bird about the bigness of a godwitt ?" 

 and in his general list of species he remarks " Godwyts, 

 taken chiefly in Marsh-land; though other parts are 

 not without them; accounted the daintiest dish in 

 England; and, I think, for the bigness of the biggest 

 price.' 5 In support of this statement, it may be mentioned 

 that Pennant describes them as " taken in the fens, in 

 the same season, with ruffs and reeves, and when fattened 



* Even prior to their extinction in Norfolk, Messrs. Sheppard 

 and Whitear speak of a large flock of these birds which appeared 

 at Yarmouth in October, 1819. 



f Wilkin's edition of his works, vol i., p. 403. 



J Merrett in his " Pinax" (1667), includes (p. 173) " Attagen, 

 a God/wit * * * in agro Lincoln ;" but his reference to a plate 

 of Jonston's " Theatrum universale de Avibus," wherein is figured, 

 under the former name, the hazel grouse (Tetrao bonasia) 

 shows that at* that time the idea of a godwit was not very well 

 denned among book-naturalists. 



" Whelp Moor," near Lakenheath, probably derived its name 

 from this species. 



