FOUND IN NORFOLK. 29 



of resort I obserued very many flocks flying from all 

 quarters, wch in lesse than an howers space came 

 all in & settled in innumerable [quantitie crossed out] 

 numbers [written below] in a small compasse. 



Great varietie of finches'* and other small birds 

 whereof one very small [one crossed out] calld a whinne 

 bird marked with fine yellow spotts & lesser than a 

 wren, there is also a small bird called a chipper some- 

 what resembling the former wch comes in the spring & 

 feeds upon the first buddings of birches & other early 

 trees. 



A kind of Anthus [or crossed out] Goldfinch {written 

 above] or fooles coat comonly calld a drawe water, 

 finely marked with red & yellowe & a white bill, wch 

 they take with trap cages in norwich gardens & fastning 

 a chaine about them tyed to a box of water it makes a 

 shift with bill and legge to draw up the water unto it 

 from the litle pot hanging [abot the length of crossed 

 out] by the chaine about a foote [downe crossed out] 

 belowe. 



^ In his fifth letter to Merrett Browne says, " I confess for such little 

 birds I am much unsatisfied on the names given to many by countrymen 

 and uncertain what to give them myself. " This is painfully apparent in 

 the cases of the two little birds here referred to as the ' ' Whinne-bird " and 

 the " Chipper." From the description of the former, "marked with fine 

 yellow spots and lesser than a Wren," also with a "shining yellow spot on 

 the back of the head," it seems likely that the Gold-crested Wren is 

 intended. The Chipper, he says, " comes in the spring and feeds upon the 

 first buddings of birches and other early trees ; " he also calls it " Beiula 

 carptor," and says that he sends a drawing to Merrett ; a third mention is 

 as follows : " That which I called a Betula carptor, and should rather have 

 called it Alni carptor ... it feeds upon alder buds, nucaments, or 

 seeds, which grow plentifully here ,: they fly in little flocks.'' I can only 

 suggest that this bird may be the Siskin, which fairly answers the description. 

 It visits us in small flocks on its way north very early in the year, feeding 

 upon the seeds of the alder, birch, and larch trees. One would however 

 have thought that the Siskin would have been well known to Browne, as 

 it evidently was to Turner, Willughby, and Ray. Merrett mentions it 

 under Turner's name of " Luteola." 



