SHELD DRAKE. 125 



position of Norrold or Northwold on the Ordnance Map, 

 bordering as it does immediately on the " Fen " district, 

 and on the western limits of the parish, where it adjoins 

 the little river Wissey, partaking much of that character 

 of soil, it is difficult at this period of time to point to 

 any particular spot likely, from its physical aspect, to 

 have been a haunt of the sheld drake in Sir Thomas 

 Browne's days, yet the expression "about Norrold and 

 other places," though apparently marking that parish 

 as a "head centre," may still mean, to use a modern 

 expression, "there or there abouts."* If taken, then, 

 in this sense, there is, as I am informed by Mr. Francis 

 Newcome, of Feltwell, a sandy tract of land either 

 in or adjoining the parish of Northwold, on the Did- 

 lington side, where rabbits abound, whilst the next 

 parish of Cranwich consists almost entirely of heath 

 and warren. In the same neighbourhood, also, is 

 Methwold,f whose warren, according to Blomefield 

 (1739), " is large and famous to a proverb for rabbits," 

 and though, on the same authority, " great suits have 

 been commenced on account of their damage," "Mewell" 



enumerating the coast insects discovered by himself and others 

 about Brandon and Thetford, he comes to the conclusion that " the 

 species in question [as also we may presume the ring dotterels] have 

 occupied this suitable ground from the time of the close of the post 

 glacial period at least," unchanged both in form and colour, and 

 that this tract of country " was actually a range of coast sands at 

 a comparatively recent point of the post glacial period, while the 

 great valley of the fens was still submerged." 



That this is a correct view of Sir Thomas' meaning is, I 

 think, proved by the many instances in which he uses the term 

 about, when desirous of localising any particular species. As, for 

 instance, he describes the common dotterel as occurring " about 

 Thetford and the Champian," &c., &c. 



f So named from its site Methelwolde, or the wold between 

 Northwold and Hockwold, the midle wolde. 



