298 



Sandwich. One was killed near Mildenhall, in Suffolk, in 1830. I learn from Frederick Holme, 

 Esq., that a flock of four or five White Storks haunted the pools of Kedby Common, in the 

 East Eiding of Yorkshire, for some time in the spring of 1830, and one of them was shot." 

 Yarrell further enumerates two other instances of its occurrence, one of which is given by 

 Mr. Stevenson. 



Mr. Stevenson has, in his ' Birds of Norfolk,' published a most careful account of the 

 occurrence of this species in Norfolk, which I copy as follows : — " ' Ciconia raro hue advolat,' 

 wrote Sir Thomas Browne in a letter to Dr. Merrett, in 1668, quoting, indeed, the latter 's own 

 words, but adding, ' I have seen two in a watery marsh, eight miles off [Norwich] ; another shot, 

 whose case is yet to be seen.' Again in his ' Account of birds found in Norfolk,' he speaks of 

 having seen the ' Ciconia, or Stork, in the fens ; and some have been shot in the marshes between 

 this [Norwich] and Yarmouth;' whilst Willughby, in his ' Ornithology,' expresses his obligation 

 to his ' honoured friend,' Sir Thomas, for ' a picture of one of these birds, taken on the coast of 

 Norfolk, drawn by the life, with a short description of it,' which specimen, in confinement, 

 'readily ate frogs and land-snails, but refused toads.' Turner years before (1544) had stated 

 ' Ciconia, ut Germanis auis est notissima, ita Britannis meis plerisque omnibus tarn ignota est, 

 quam quae omnium ignotissima. Nee mirum, quum nusquam in insula nostra nisi captiua 

 Ciconia uideatur ;' in Johnston, whose work bears a figure of this bird on its frontispiece, with 

 the motto ' Pietas contenta lucrata,' bore witness to the same, saying Storks 'in Britannia 

 ignotas esse.' Bay, too, in his 'Synopsis' (1713), asserts that the species 'In littoribus nostris 

 interdum sed rarius cernitur; apud nos non nidificat' (p. 97). Still, notwithstanding these old 

 records, so fortunately preserved to us, I see no reason to suppose that, as an accidental visitant, 

 the Stork was less frequently met with on our coast at that time than it is now, although fewer 

 examples fell victims to their too confiding nature, and many, most probably, passed wholly 

 unnoticed. It must, however, be always borne in mind that the Stork was but a stranger in the 

 land, and not an inhabitant as were the Crane and Spoonbill. 



" Going back to the commencement of the present century, we have ample evidence of its 

 appearance in this country, year after year, on its migratory course ; and more recent observations 

 entirely confirm the statement of Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, in 1846, that ' one or two of these 

 birds are generally seen in Norfolk every year, generally during the spring months, and in the 

 vicinity of the eastern coast.' Now and then, however, a specimen is met with far inland, either 

 storm-driven, or, more often, seeking in vain to escape persecution. In Sir William Hooker's MS. 

 I find the following important notes, which are, in many points, confirmed by the Messrs. Paget : — 

 'A Stork seen about Yarmouth by Mr. Penrice and Mr. Bonfellow in the autumn of 1810; a 

 pair seen at Burgh Castle during the months of May and June 1817, and at length shot in the 

 beginning of July ; another before that time shot at Caister ; and one killed in Norfolk, May 6th, 

 1818, now in the possession of Mr. T. Hunt, of Norwich.' Of more recent date, there is a record 

 in Mr. Lombe's notes, of one killed near Holt, in 1836 ; Mr. Lubbock mentions one killed at 

 Wretham, in 1838; and an adult bird in the Norwich Museum (No. 211a) was shot near Yar- 

 mouth in 1842. Of this latter specimen I find the following interesting description in the 

 ' Zoologist ' for 1843 (p. 182), from the pen of Mr. W. B. Fisher (then residing at Yarmouth) : — 

 'As I was walking on the beach, on the morning of the 10th of May last, I observed a bird of 



