1318 Birds. 



satisfactory explanation of this great diminution in the numbers of 

 the quail. 



A nest containing eleven eggs, very recently laid, was taken in 

 a grass field, near Yarmouth, on the 15th of last August. 



Great Bustard, Otis tarda. We fear that this noble bird must now 

 be considered as extinct in Norfolk, though it has only recently be- 

 come so. It is perhaps doubtful, whether the bustard was at any 

 time a very numerous species in this county. It is only twice men- 

 tioned in the household accounts of the Lestranges,* kept in the reign 

 of Henry VIII, and Sir Thomas Browne, a hundred and fifty years 

 later, merely says that they " are not unfrequent in the champian and 

 fieldy part of this county." 



Little Bustard, Otis tetrax. The little bustard, has at different 

 times occurred in this district, but must be considered as a very rare 

 visitor. 



Great Plover, (Edicnemus crepitans. A common summer visitant 

 to the open sandy parts of the county, where it breeds about the end 

 of May. It arrives in April, and departs towards the end of Sep- 

 tember. 



We have found the remains of the forceps of several earwigs in the 

 stomach of one of these birds. 



Collared Pratincole, Glareola torquata. Has occurred several times 

 in this district, but only as a very rare and occasional visitant. 



Golden Plover, Charadrius pluvialis. This species appears in 

 Norfolk in the month of October, and is found occasionally in flocks 

 throughout the autumn and winter months, with the exception, per- 

 haps of occasional southward migrations in very severe weather. 



Its northward migration takes place in May, and we have observed 

 it in Norfolk as late as the 25th of that month, in the perfect plumage 

 of the breeding season. 



Instances are said to have occurred of the nesting of the golden 

 plover in Norfolk, but as far as we have been able to ascertain, none 

 of them have been well authenticated. 



Dotterel, Charadrius morinellus. The dotterel occurs in small 

 numbers in its migrations to and from its breeding grounds. It 

 appears in the month of September, remaining but a short time, and 

 returns in March. It seems to remain longer on its northward than 

 on its southward migration, for we have noticed its occurrence so late 

 as the 20th of May. 



* Household and Privy Purse Accounts of the Lestranges of Hunstanton, from 

 A.D. 151!) to A.D. 1578, 



