400 
IV. 
SWAFFHAM 
April 28 t “ 1824 
Dear Sir 
It is such a length of time since you did me the 
honor of requesting me to write to you, which I have neglected, 
that I fear you might have imagined that I never had recovered 
from the painful operation which I had undergone when I was at 
Cheltenham : but I am happy in being able to say I am now in 
the fashionable term “all right” : & yet hope to pay you a visit 
in the beginning of the Grouse Shooting on my way to Lord Huntly’s* 
where I am going with a regoodal sporting friend in this neigh- 
bourhood, who, altho’ no stuffier, is always anxious to procure 
Birds to enable me to make an increase to my collection. I 
recollect you were anxious to obtain a specimen of the Thick-kneed 
Bustard, Charadrius Oedicnemus, & am very happy in being able 
to send you a pair, I may say in the best plumage I can procure 
them, as they are just come over into this Country to breed; but 
from whence I know not. I only know that after the breeding 
season about the middle of September you may see hundreds in 
different parts on the light lands, particularly on the Warrens, in 
large flocks, & after that month not one is to be seen : I never 
could find any one, altho’ [he may be] a scientific ornithologist, who 
can tell me where the Dotterel are moving to, when we see them in 
large flocks in this country in April & August, & never later. I am 
sorry I canot let a Bustard accompany the Stone-Curlews ; but 
they are now becoming exceeding scarce. I saw three about a 
month ago, & one female yesterday, & generally on the same spot ; 
& I have found from observation that a female will frequent a 
certain field, unless disturbed, for near a month before she deposits 
her eggs, which is generally about the 12 th of May. There was a 
nest destroyed by the weeders last year near the spot I can 
generally see the one in question. I wish you would pay me a 
* George Gordon, eldest son of Alexander, Duke of Gordon, born 1770, 
succeeded his father (in whose life-time he bore the courtesy-title of Marquess 
of Huntly), as fifth Duke, in 1827, and died in 183G. 
