230 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



February \^th. Examined a lot (in a poulterer's). All 

 had empty crops ; evidently they had been shot early in the 

 day. Examining one in the market, I found its crop filled 

 with clover leaves. 



Wood-pigeons are most saleable birds in our market, and 

 are disposed of at sixpence and eightpence each, forming a not 

 unremunerative item to those who sometimes expose large 

 bunches of them for sale. I certainly do not see much for 

 the East Norfolk garden-farmer to complain of, if added to 

 this substantial figure he gets some interesting and even 

 exciting sport thrown in. A fat, clover-fed pigeon is by no 

 means bad eating. 



QUAILS IN EAST ANGLIA 



The Daily Chronicle of October iQth, 1905, was respon- 

 sible for the following "par": "A quail has been shot by 

 Sub-Lieutenant H. R. Sawbridge, R.N., at Lopham Fen. It 

 is over fifty years since the last specimen was seen in the 

 eastern counties." 



Newspaper folks, as a rule, are peculiarly partial to that 

 " last fifty years," and the orthodox " so many feet across the 

 wings from tip to tip," when describing rare or curious birds 

 seen or shot. I felt called upon to answer the statement, 

 and wrote as follows : 



"SIR, In your 'Interesting News in Few Lines,' you make 

 reference to a quail shot at Lopham Fen as the last seen in 

 the Eastern counties for fifty years. Allow me to state that 

 several bevies of quails nested in the Broad district in 1870 ; 

 and my two latest local records are : * female shot at Scratby, 

 September I3th, 1893; and two others near Yarmouth in 

 November, 1899.' 



" This species, which was regarded by the late Sir James 

 Paget as 'not uncommon,' in 1834, is rare now, as it is in 

 this country generally ; and Mr. J. H. Gurney {Norfolk and 

 Norwich Naturalists' Transactions} considers the present 

 scarcity is due more to the captures which annually take 

 place in the south of Europe than to any agricultural 

 changes in Norfolk. ^ pj p 



Other letters appeared, two of which are as follow : 

 " G. T. D.," of Wimborne, wrote : " About the year 1874, I 

 found on my shooting land a quail's nest with nineteen eggs. 



