8 NOTES ON CERTAIN BIRDS 



which seemes to bee the greater sort of Larus. whereof I 

 met with one kild by a greyhound neere swaffam 

 another in marshland while it fought & would not bee 

 forced to take wing another intangled in an herring net 

 wch taken aliue was fed with herrings for a while it may 

 be named Larus maior Leucophaeopterus as being white 

 & the top of the wings browne. 



[Fol. 7.] In hard winters I have also met with that 

 large & strong billd fowle wch clusius describeth by the 

 name of Skua Hoyeri^" [fr struck out] sent him from the 

 faro Island by Hoierus a physitian. one whereof was 

 shot at Hickling while 2 thereof were feeding upon a 

 dead horse. 



As also that [strong struck out] large & strong billd 

 fowle [Clusius nameth struck out] spotted like a starling 

 wch clusius nameth Mergus maior farroensis^^ as fre- 

 quenting the faro islands seated above Shetland, one 

 whereof I sent unto my worthy friend Dr Scarburgh. 



Here is also the pica marina^^ or seapye many sorts of 



w Willughby ("Ornithology,'' English Ed., p. 348) gives a good 

 description of the Great Skua (Stercorarius catarrhactes) under the name 

 of Catarracta, a skin of which he says was sent him by Dr. Walter 

 Needham, and rightly identified it with the Skua which Hoier sent to 

 Clusius, but his figure is evidently drawn from a skin of the Great Black- 

 backed Gull. Hoier, whose name so often occurs about this time in 

 connection with birds firom the north, was a. physician, living at Bergen 

 in Norway. The Great Skua still breeds in sadly reduced numbers on the 

 Shetland and Faroe Islands,- but us is rarely met with in Norfolk. 



^1 The bird here mentioned is doubtless the Great Northern Diver. 

 In another place Browne again refers to it as Mergus maximus Farrensis, 

 Colymbus glacialis, which Clusius (" Exotic," p. 102) calls Mergus maximu, 

 a name used by Willughby as a synonym for his "Greatest Speckled 

 Diver or Loon" (p. 341). This bird is known to our fishermen as the 

 Herring Loon, the Red-throated and perhaps also the Black- throated 

 Divers being called Sprat Loons. It is a pity Browne's " draught" is not 

 forthcoming. 



^'^ The Oyster Catcher, or Sea Pie, is found in greater numbers on the 

 north-west portion of the County of Norfolk than on the eastern shore ; it 



