MU. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE KINO EIDER AS A NORFOLK BIRD. 59 
(title-page dated 1815), nor does he include the species in his list 
of Norfolk birds contributed to Stacy’s ‘History of Norfolk’ 
(1829). Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear do not mention it in 
their ‘Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds,’ printed in the 
‘Transactions of the Linnean Society,’ and read in 1824 and 1825. 
The first published notice of the occurrence with which I am 
acquainted occurs in the ‘ Sketch of the Natural History of 
Yarmouth and its Neighbourhood,’ by the brothers Paget, published 
in 1854; and here, strango to say, although the King Eider is 
mentioned in precisely the words above quoted from the Hooker 
MS., no mention is made of the Common Eider, which must 
have been known to the authors of the ‘ Sketch ’ as an occasional 
winter visitant. From that time the King Duck appeared 
unquestioned in all the lists of Norfolk birds up to, and including, 
Mr. Stevenson’s * Sketch of the Ornithology of Norfolk,’ in 
White’s ‘Directory’ of the county, published in 1864. In 1879 
I edited a new edition of Lubbock’s ‘Fauna of Norfolk,’ and 
after due consultation with Mr. Stevenson and other authorities on 
Norfolk birds, I thought it best, although reluctantly, to append 
a note (foot-noto 149, pp. 161 — 2), calling attention to the 
extremely unsatisfactory claim of this species to a place in the 
Norfolk avi-fauna. In addition to the very improbable date 
(.July 25th) of the alleged occurrence, Mr. Stevenson very rightly 
remarks, “ In the days before Yarrell, I question if Wigg, or an}’ 
one at Yarmouth, would have recognised the female of the 
King Eider as distinct from the more common species,” and 
with regard to another of Mr. Wigg’s rarities, he also calls 
attention to the fact that “Lilly Wigg was not an ornithologist 
proper, and yet three of the rarest and most questionable species 
in the Norfolk list rest almost entirely on his authority — the 
Bed-breasted Goose, the Harlequin Duck, and the King Eider.” 
Mr. Stovenson has retained the Red-breasted Goose for reasons 
which will be found in the ‘ Birds of Norfolk ’ (vol. iii. pp. 39 — 41), 
but I had no hesitation in following the authority of his last list 
in White’s ‘Norfolk’ (edit. 1883), from which both the latter 
birds are omitted ; Somateria spectabitix will therefore only be 
found mentioned in a foot-note at p. 192 of the forthcoming third 
volume of the ‘ Birds of Norfolk.’ In the autumn of last year 
the Rev. Julian G. Tuck kindly favoured me with some valuable 
