28 NOTES ON CERTAIN BIRDS 



french Red legjjd partridge*^ is not to bee met with 

 [heere crossed out\. the Ralla or Rayle** wee haue counted 

 a dayntie dish, as also no small number of Quayles. 

 the Heathpoult" comon in the north is vnknown heere 

 as also the Grous. though I haue heard some haue 

 been seen about Lynne. the calandrier or great {^Fol. 19] 

 great \sic\ crested lark Galerita I haue not met with 

 heere though with 3 other sorts [of Larkes written 

 above\ the ground lark woodlark & titlark. 



Stares or starlings in great numbers, most remark- 

 able in their [great crossed out^ numerous \_written 

 above"] flocks [about the crossed out] wch I haue 

 obserued about the Autumne when they roost at night 

 [up crossed out] in the marshes in safe places upon 

 reeds & alders, wch to obserue I went to the marshes 

 about sunne set. where standing by their vsuall place 



^° The Red-legged Partridge is now common enough ; it was introduced 

 into the Eastern Counties at Sudbourne and Rendlesham, in East Suffolk, 

 in or about the year 1770, by both the Marquis of Hertford and Lord 

 Rendlesham. How quickly they established themselves may be judged 

 from the fact that in the season of 1806-7 of '.927 Partridges killed at 

 Rendlesham 112 were Red-legs, but they do not seem to have spread very 

 far. A second introduction, this time into West Suffolk, much nearer to 

 the Norfolk border, at and about Culford, was effected in the year 1823, and 

 firom this centre they rapidly spread into Norfolk, in which county also 

 others were imported by the resident proprietors. 



^ The Land Rail (Crex fraiensis) or Daker hen, is doubtless here 

 referred to, as the Water Rail has already been mentioned (p. 15 ante) as 

 "a kind of Ralla aquaiica." This bird is a summer visitor, by no means 

 common and very uncertain in its numbers. The same applies to the Quail, 

 which appears to be less frequent than formerly, no doubt from the great 

 destruction on the Mediterranean coast in spring of the birds migrating to 

 England. In the summer and autumn of 1870 we had an unusual influx 

 of these latter birds. 



^' How far the indigenous race of Blackgame, which undoubtedly 

 lingered for many years about Wolferton and Sandringham, still exists, it is 

 difficult to say ; examples turn up occasionally, but so many of these birds 

 have been introduced and turned off in different parts of the county in the 

 course of the past forty years, that it is impossible to speak with certainty. 



