2 NOTES ON CERTAIN BIRDS 



endeavoured to identify the species treated of. This, notwith- 

 standing the kind assistance of the friends whose help I grate- 

 fully acknowledge, I may not in all cases have successfully 

 accomplished ; the conclusions arrived at are occasionally only 

 conjectural, and it may be that in some instances I have erred. 

 Should such be the case I must plead in excuse the difficulty 

 arising from vagueness of description, the frequent use of 

 vernacular names which have long since become obsolete {see 

 Note 32), and the imperfection of the record. This especially 

 applies to the Marine Animals, and one of my correspondents 

 rightly remarks that " the early accounts of marine beasts are 

 so vague, and the figures (where referred to) so incomplete and 

 often fanciful, that it is diificult even to make out the family, 

 to say nothing of genera and species." Any assistance or 

 correction in this respect would be gladly received by me.] 



\Fol. 5.] I willingly obey your comands^ in setting 

 down such birds fishes & other animals wch for many 

 years I have observed in Norfolk. 



Beside the ordinarie birds which keep constantly in 

 the country many are discouerable both in winter & 

 summer wch are of a migrant nature & exchange 

 their seats according to the season.^ those wch come in 



^ With regard to the probable origin of these notes (see " Introduction," 

 p. xxi.). The opening passage was probably addressed to the deceased 

 correspondent who had asked his assistance, whereas his first letter to 

 Merrett seems to indicate that the offer of help to him came spontaneously 

 from Browne ("I take ye boldness to salute you," &c.), and was not in 

 response to Merrett's request. 



^ Browne seems to have had on the whole a fairly correct idea with 

 regard to the migratory movements of the birds on the Norfolk coast where 

 peculiar facilities exist for such observations, but of course he could have 

 formed no notion of the extent to which they prevail, perhaps no species 

 being altogether sedentary. The general line of the autumn migration for 

 those which spend their summer in Northern Europe is south or south- 

 west, returning in the spring by the reverse route ; those which visit ns in 

 spring from Western Europe, or countries lying still more to the eastward, 

 adopt what is known as the east to west route, and reverse the direction in 

 the autumn ; but this latter is as nothing compared with the vast number 

 of immigrants by both routes in the early autumn, at which time, especially, 



