4 NOTES ON CERTAIN BIRDS 



3 yards & a quarter from the extremitie of the wings, 

 whereof one being taken aliue grewe so tame that it 

 went about the yard feeding on fish redherrings flesh & 

 any offells without the least trouble. 



There is also a le.sser sort of Agle called an ospray* 

 wch houers about the fennes & broads & will dippe his 

 [foot crossed oui\ claws & take up a fish oftimes for wch 

 his foote is made of an extraordinarie roughnesse for 

 the better fastening & holding of it & the like they will 

 do unto cootes. 



\^Fol. 6.] Aldrovandus takes particular notice of the 

 great number of Kites' about London & about the 

 Thames, wee are not without them heare though not 

 in such numbers. there are also the gray & bald 

 Buzzard' [wch the all wth crossed out] of all wch the 



* This species is a not unfrequent autumn visitor to the Broads and 

 Rivers of Norfolk. Browne names it correctly, but there was much con- 

 fusion with regard to this species in the minds of the old authors. 

 Willughby knew the bird and calls it the "Bald Buzzard," but in describ- 

 ing its nesting site and eggs (probably not on his own authority,) evidently 

 confounds it with the Marsh Harrier, for he says that "it builds upon the 

 ground among reeds, and lays three or four large white eggs of " figure 

 exactly elliptical, lesser than hens' eggs." See Note 6. 



* The Glede, or Puttock, of Turner, once so plentiful, is now only an 

 extremely tare visitor to Norfolk. In 1815, it appears from Hunt (" British 

 Ornithology"), not to have been uncommon, but the same authority in his 

 list of Norfolk Birds contributed to Stacey's "History" of that County, 

 speaks of the Kite as having in 1829 become extremely rare. It probably 

 ceased to nest in this County about the year 1830, or perhaps a little later. 

 Browne's reason for its comparative scarcity about the City of Norwich, 

 viz., the abundance of Ravens mentioned at p. 27 infra, is very inter- 

 esting to us in the present day when Kites and Ravens are almost equally 

 rare. 



" It seems likely that Browne here refers to two species of Harrier, the 

 Grey Buzzard being the male of the Hen Harrier (including of course 

 Montagu's Harrier which was not discriminated till long after) in its 

 grey adult plumage, whereas the Marsh Harrier, with its light yellow head, 

 to which the word "bald" as then used might well be applied, would 

 stand for the "Bald Buzzard." The Harriers, which were tilllong after 



