248 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



STONE CURLEWS AS OBSERVED AROUND 

 THETFORD. 



By W. G. Clarke. 



The first Stone Curlew graphically described to British 

 ornithologists was a specimen killed near Thetford in 1674, a 

 drawing of which was forwarded to Ray by Sir Thomas Browne 

 of Norwich. Since that time the "breck" district of Norfolk 

 and Suffolk, of which Thetford is the centre, has been known as 

 the great stronghold of this bird in Britain. Although the 

 number of Stone Curlews breeding in the district has doubtless 

 greatly diminished since that period, it still seems probable that 

 the numerical loss has been little since the time of Salmon in 

 the early thirties. This year they are certainly far more plentiful 

 than they have been during the last ten years. A belt of heath- 

 land from four to eight miles wide surrounds Thetford — which for 

 this reason has been designated "the town on the heath" — and 

 hereon the Stone Curlews nest yearly. 



J. D. Salmon, F.L.S., recorded the first arrivals of the bird in 

 the district as on March 27th, 1834 ; March 15th, 1835 ; and 

 March 28th, 1836. My own dates are April 2nd, 1892; March 

 31st, 1893; March 28th, 1894 ; March 31st, 1895 ; and March 

 24th, 1897. This year, however, they were noted by a very 

 accurate observer at Great Fakenham, Suffolk, during the last 

 week of February. The main body has generally departed by 

 the middle of October, but Salmon started one on December 9th, 

 1834, and on December 12th, 1894, I distinctly heard one 

 whistling almost incessantly for fifteen minutes from Barnham 

 Cross Common, a mile from Thetford. A pair were also observed 

 here in March, 1853, during deep snow. 



On March 25th last, the day after their arrival in the 

 district, these birds seemed to be extremely plentiful upon the 

 heaths and upland "brecks" north and west of Thetford. Their 

 whistling was almost continuous, albeit blurred, as it always is 



