PROFESSOR NEWTON ON SPOONBILL BREEDING IN NORFOLK. 159 
“ 1300. Membrane 24 d. 
March 22. Commission of oyer and terminer to William Ha ward, 
Westminster. William do Ilanyngfold and William de Sutton, touching 
the persons who entered the park of Hugh de Bardolf in 
Whynebergh and his free warren there and in Wvrmegeye, Westbrigg, 
Rungeton, Stowe Bardolf, Fynchham, Cauntele, Strumpshagh, Castro by 
Jcrnemuth, and Scrouteby, hunted therein and carried away deer, hares 
and rabbits; carried away his eyries of sparrow-hawks, herons, spoonbills 
( poplorum ) and bitterns in his several woods in Whynebergh, Cauntele and 
Wynnegeyo, his swans at Wyrmegcyo, and his goods there and at Shuldham 
and Castre by Jernemuth, and assaulted his men at Shuldham. Whynebergh 
and Castre, co. Norfolk.” 
This additional evidence of the Spoonbill’s breeding in Norfolk 
is perhaps the oldest on record, and therefore it is not surprising to 
find the bird mentioned by its ancient and often over-looked name 
“ Popeler Latinized of course to suit the language of the 
document. The word is evidently cognate with or corrupted from 
the Dutch Lepelaar, and I have often thought it may survive in the 
name of Poppylot, part of Feltwell Fen, which was still undrained 
in 1852, and would perhaps even then have afforded suitable 
harbour for a company of Spoonbills had any been left in the 
country. 
I would venture to suggest that any member of this Society who 
might have the opportunity of consulting the original document 
summarized in the passage I have extracted, would do well to use 
it, as some other matter of interest to a naturalist may occur in it. 
Alfred Newton. 
Magdalene College, Cambridge, 
14th January, 1S90. 
[Acting on the suggestion of Professor Newton, and with the kind assis- 
tance of the Rev. William Hudson, F.S.A., I obtained a literal copy of the 
document referred to, and the latter gentleman added still more to our 
indebtedness by making an extended copy of the cramped and abbreviated 
original in fair Latin, which he accompanied by a translation. The passage 
referred to by Professor Newton is here printed literatim, also the translation 
of the whole document, which, although it does not add any new fact, is still 
interesting as a record of the lawless proceedings of the times, and of the 
mode of obtaining redress. 
* See ‘ Promptorium Parvulorum,’ ed. Albert Way, part 2, p. 408, and 
part 3, p. 448 (Camden Society). 
