Notes And Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk

The excellent Memoir of Sir Thomas Browne, in Wilkin's Edition of his works, renders it unnecessary here to repeat what has already been so well done; suffice it to say that he was born in London on the 19th of October, 1605; he was educated at Winchester School and entered at Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College), Oxford, in 1623; graduated B.A. 31st January, 1626-7, and M.A. 11th June, 1629. About the year 1633 he was created Doctor of Physick at Leyden. In 1636 he took up his residence in Norwich, in 1637 was incorporated Doctor of Physic in Oxford, and in 1665 was chosen an Honorary Fellow of the College of Physicians. In 1671 Browne was knighted at Norwich by Charles II., and after a useful and honourable career died on his seventy-sixth birthday, the 19th of October, 1682, and his body lies buried in the church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich.

Browne in early life travelled much and was a voluminous writer; he made many friendships with men celebrated in his day, and his advice and assistance were sought and gratefully acknowledged by Dugdale, Evelyn, Ray and Willughby, Merrett, Sir Robert Paston (afterwards Earl of Yarmouth), Ashmole, Aubrey, and others; but his general correspondence does not now concern us, my object being to supply in a convenient form what I believe will be acceptable to modern naturalists, namely, an accurate transcript of his notes and letters on the "Natural History of the County of Norfolk."

These notes and letters were first published by Simon Wilkin in his Edition of Sir Thomas Browne's Works in 1835, but they were not treated from a naturalist's point of view, and in some places were not correctly transcribed, added to which, in the vast mass of matter contained in Wilkin's four large volumes (or in the closely printed three volumes of Bohn's Edition), these interesting passages are in danger of being overlooked or are inconvenient for reference. Two letters, moreover, were needed to make the correspondence with Merrett complete, and these I have been enabled to supply. I hope also that my explanatory notes, which I trust will not be deemed too voluminous, will be found more useful than the necessarily brief notes furnished by Wilkin and his collaborators. Furthermore, I think that the retention of the original spelling and punctuation may lend a charm to the quaintness of the language which is in a measure destroyed by any attempt at modernising.

There is much that is interesting bearing upon Natural Science scattered throughout Browne's writings, especially in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or inquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors, first published in 1646, and the reader cannot fail to be impressed not only with the extent of his classical knowledge but also with the shrewdness with which he pursued his original investigations; but here it is only proposed to deal with certain manuscript notes and a series of rough notes for, or copies of, letters addressed to Dr. Christopher Merrett, the author of the Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum. These, as remarked by their editor, with regard to some other manuscripts published[A] in 1684, under the title of "Certain Miscellany Tracts," were doubtless "rather the diversions than the Labours of his Pen; and … He did, as it were, drop down his Thoughts of a sudden, in those spaces of vacancy which he snatch'd from those very many occasions which gave him hourly interruption;" but I cannot in this instance agree with the conclusion arrived at by the same writer that it "seemeth probable that He designed them for publick use," for they appear to be the rough drafts or memoranda used in the production of the finished letters (which are unfortunately not forthcoming), and were never intended for publication in their present crude form, thus rendering pardonable such annotations as I have ventured to add. But before proceeding further it is necessary to consider briefly the time and circumstances under which they were written, and the state of what passed for Natural Science at that period.

Browne wrote early in the second half of the seventeenth century, during a period of great awakening in the study of Nature. Hitherto it could hardly be said that a direct appeal to the works of Nature had been the prevailing method. Aristotle was still the established authority, and commentaries on his works occupied the minds of men to the exclusion of original investigation, notwithstanding that this great philosopher had himself, both by precept and example, urged the importance of direct observation and inquiry; the Mediæval school of thought still prevailed and cramped every effort at progress. How keenly Browne lamented this spirit of slavish adherence to tradition may be judged from a passage in one of his Essays in the "Vulgar Errors" condemning the obstinate adherence unto antiquity; he writes, "but the mortallist enemy unto knowledge, and that which hath done the greatest execution upon truth, hath been a peremptory adhesion unto authority; and more especially the establishing of our belief upon the dictates of antiquity. For (as every capacity may observe) most men of ages present, so supersticiously do look upon ages past, that the authorities of one exceed the reason of the other." In another place he argues that the present should be the age of authority, seeing that we possess all the wisdom of the ancients which has come down to us, with that of our own times added. In fact, Browne's motto appears to have been "prove all things and hold fast only to that which is good."[B]

Aristotle, whose works on Natural History have descended to us in a very imperfect condition, lived in 385-322 B.C., and it was not till A.D. 79 that the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder the next great work, which has survived till our days, was completed, and by some of those most competent to form a judgment the additions which he made were not in all cases improvements. Other writers followed, but their productions were of little value, and it was not till the year 1544 that William Turner published at Cologne what Professor Newton describes as "the first commentary on the birds mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny conceived in anything like the spirit that moves modern Naturalists." Turner's book is very rare and unfortunately at present beyond the reach of most modern students. No attempt at systematic arrangement, as now understood, was made until the Histoire de la Nature des Oyseaux of Pierre Belon (Bellonius) appeared at Paris in 1555, for the much greater work of Conrad Gesner, being the third book of his Historia Animalium, which was published at Zurich in the same year, and treated of Birds, followed, more or less closely, an alphabetical plan which brought upon him the censure of Aldrovandus, three of whose sixteen folio volumes forming the Historia Naturalium bore the title of Ornithologiæ hoc est de Avibus Historiæ, Libri XII., and were brought out at Bologna between the years 1599 and 1603. The Historia Naturalis of John Jonston, or "Jonstonus" (1603-1675), originally published in four sections between the years 1649 and 1653, ran through several editions, and was a popular book in the seventeenth century; it is frequently referred to by Browne, but is a work of very little originality. Though all these authors undoubtedly influenced their successors, it may be fairly said that it was Browne's contemporaries and fellow-countrymen, Francis Willughby and John Ray, who laid the first solid foundation of systematic zoology in their Ornithologia and Historia Piscium, published in 1676 and 1686 respectively; but dying in 1682, Browne was indebted to neither of them, though he doubtless exercised much influence over them, and he had to use the clumsy descriptive terminology then in vogue.[C] Let me illustrate this by a single example. In one of his letters to Merrett he names a "little elegant sea plant" (probably Halecium halecinum, a species of Hydroid Zoophyte), "Fucus marinus vertebratus pisciculi spinum referens ichthyorachius, or what you think fit." On another occasion Merrett thus expresses his approval of Browne's efforts in this direction: "You have very well named the rutilus and expressed fully the cours to bee taken in the imposition of names, viz: the most obvious and most peculiar difference to the ey or any other sens." We can hardly conceive the difficulties these pioneers of Natural Science had to contend with; the works of their predecessors were so indefinite as to be of little value in determining species; they had to depend upon the vague descriptions of fowlers and others; the same bird would probably be known in half a dozen different localities by as many different names, and since no satisfactory mode of preserving specimens had then been discovered, examples for comparison were not available. If inextricable confusion arose with regard to such a bird as the Osprey, well might Browne write with regard to those less readily characterized, "I confess for such little birds I am much unsatisfied on the names given to many by countrymen, and uncertaine what to give them myself, or to what classis of authors cleerly to reduce them. Surely there are many found among us which are not described; and therefore such which you cannot well reduce, may (if at all) be set down after the exacter nomination of small birds as yet of uncertain class of knowledge."

I must ask pardon for this digression, but my object has been to show the difficulties Browne had to contend with and to emphasise the originality which pervades all his observations, a characteristic so conspicuously absent in the work of most of his predecessors. I should like also to call attention to his references to the migratory habits of many species of birds, a phenomenon attracting little notice in his day, but one which can be so readily observed on the coast of Norfolk. These remarks were penned at a time when hibernation in a state of torpidity was thoroughly believed in—an idea of which even Gilbert White a hundred years later could not thoroughly divest himself. In his tract on "Hawks and Falconry," Browne further says: "How far the hawks, merlins, and wild-fowl which come unto us with a north-west [east?] wind in Autumn, fly in a day, there is no clear account: but coming over the sea their flight hath been long or very speedy. For I have known them to light so weary on the coast, that many have been taken with dogs, and some knocked down with staves and stones." Further than this, he knew the seasons of their appearing—the Hobby "coming to us in the spring," the Merlin "about autumn." His frequent mention of anatomical peculiarities and of his dissections of many birds and beasts clearly prove his passion for original research, and the frequent records of the contents of the stomachs of the birds which he had the opportunity of examining was a mode of obtaining exact information as to the nature of their food, which I imagine was not common in those days.

How highly Browne was esteemed by his contemporaries may be judged from the acknowledgments of his assistance by Dugdale, Evelyn (who visited him in Norwich in 1671), and others; and Ray especially mentions his indebtedness to "the deservedly famous Sir Thomas Browne, Professor of Physic in the City of Norwich." His letters to his son, Dr. Edward Browne, are full of instructions as to the course of study he should pursue, and subsequently, when the latter became celebrated and was appointed Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, it was still to his father that he looked for advice in his hospital practice and in the preparation of his lectures. Browne was proud of his adopted county, a feeling evidently shared by his son, and I trust I may be pardoned for quoting the concluding passage of the latter's account of a tour into Derbyshire, wherein he expresses a sentiment which survives with undiminished force in the breast of many a Norfolk man in the present day. There is a very interesting account of his crossing the Wash on leaving Lynn for Boston, but on his return to Norwich in September, 1662, he thus concludes his journal: "Give me leave to say this much: let any stranger find mee out so pleasant a country, such good way [roads], large heath, three such places as Norwich. Yar [Yarmouth] and Lin [Lynn], in any county of England, and I'll bee once again a vagabond to visit them."

The manuscripts of which the following selection forms a part are contained, with a few exceptions to be named hereafter, in the Sloane Collection in the Library of the British Museum, consisting of nearly one hundred volumes, numbered 1825 to 1923 both inclusive. A catalogue is given by Simon Wilkin[D] (himself a Norfolk man), by whom Browne's collected writings were first published in a connected form, as already mentioned, under the title of "Sir Thomas Browne's Works, including his Life and Correspondence, edited by Simon Wilkin, F.L.S. London, William Pickering. Josiah Fletcher, Norwich, 1836." 4 volumes, 8vo; the first volume only is dated 1836, Vols. 2, 3, and 4 being dated 1835.[E] It was here that the Notes and Letters were first given to the public. A second edition of the "Works," also edited by Wilkin, in three closely printed volumes, was issued in Bohn's Antiquarian Library in 1852. In the first edition the Notes on the Birds and Fishes will be found in Vol. IV., pp. 313 to 336, and the letters to Merrett in Vol. I., pp. 393 to 408. In the second edition both are in Vol. III., pp. 311 to 335 and pp. 502 to 513 respectively. The references here, as a rule, will be made to the 1836 edition, when otherwise Bohn's edition will be specified.

The foot-notes in Wilkin's edition, many of them very curious, initialled "Wr.," are by Dr. Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor (father of the Architect of St. Paul's Cathedral), and were found on the margins of a copy of the first edition of the Pseudodoxia now preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford; those initialled "G." were written for Wilkin's first edition by the late Miss Anna Gurney, of Northrepps, near Cromer, Norfolk.

The first papers to which I shall refer are a series of rough notes contained for the most part in volume 1830 of the Sloane MSS., the first portion being devoted to Birds found in Norfolk, followed by a similar series relating to marine and freshwater Fishes, including a few marine invertebrata and plants. They are written on one side only of foolscap paper, the portion relating to Birds occupying folios 5 to 19 inclusive, folios 1 to 4 consist of two inserted letters from Merrett to Browne (see Appendix A.), which are printed by Wilkin in his first edition, Vol. I., pp. 442-5. The notes on Fishes are in the same volume of manuscripts, folios 23 to 38; but there are some irregularities which will be explained as they occur. The whole of the notes are very roughly written, and present the appearance of a commonplace book, in which the entries were made as the events occurred to the writer, being quite devoid of any system or arrangement. The entries doubtless extend over several years, but it is impossible to fix the dates on which they were made, the only internal evidence I can find being that speaking of the occurrence of a certain shark he states it was taken "this year, 1662," and on the next page of the MS. there is the record of the occurrence of a sun-fish in the year 1667; this latter, however, is evidently an interpolation. A few pages further on there is the record of what he calls a large mackerel, "taken this year, 1668," but this also is an addition. We may take it, I think, that most of the notes were made about the year 1662, but that they were added to on various occasions up to 1668, in which year his first letter to Merrett is dated. It has been suggested that these notes were prepared in the interest of Dr. Merrett for his use in an enlarged edition of his Pinax, but the remark in his first letter to this correspondent, "I have observed and taken notice of many animals in these parts whereof 3 years agoe a learned gentleman of this country wished me to give him some account, which while I was doing ye gentleman my good friend died," clearly shows that they were originally prepared for another purpose, although they eventually furnished the materials for his letters to Merrett, but who his deceased friend was it seems now useless to conjecture, although it would be interesting to know. The notes were certainly never intended to appear in their present form, and failing their use by Merrett which never took place, the information they contained was, as we know, of great service to Ray and Willughby.

Browne's correspondent, Dr. Christopher Merrett, was born at Winchcomb, in Gloucestershire, on the 16th of February, 1614. He graduated B.A. at Oriel College, Oxford, about the year 1635; M.B. 1636; M.D. 1643. Was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1651, and was made first Keeper of the Library and Museum; he was Censor of the College seven times. Having entered into litigation with the College with regard to his appointment, which was considered by that body to have terminated when the Library was destroyed by the great fire, he was defeated, and in 1681 expelled from his fellowship. He died in London in 1695. ("Dict. of Nat. Biog.") Merrett was the author of several works on various subjects, as well as of the Pinax, and a translation of the "Art of Glass" referred to further on. His Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum, said to have been brought out in 1666, contained the earliest list of British Birds ever published, but it is little more than a bare list. Copies bearing the date of 1666 are very rare, and it is believed the edition was burned in a fire at the publishers; but Professor Newton ("Dict. of Birds," Introduction, p. xviii.) says that in 1667 there were two issues of a reprint; one, nominally a second edition, only differs from the others in having a new title-page, an example doubtless of what Wilkin severely condemns as "that contemptible form of lying under which publishers have endeavoured to persuade the public of the rapidity of their sales." Merrett was contemplating a new and improved edition of his work when, as Wilkin happily puts it, "in an auspicious moment he sought the assistance of Browne, whose liberal response is evidenced in the [drafts of the] letters still fortunately extant, but either superseded by the more learned labours of Willughby and Ray, or laid aside on account of the perplexities in which Merrett became involved with the College of Physicians, the Pinax never attained an enlarged edition. Had Browne completed and published his own 'Natural History of Norfolk,' he might have contended for precedency among the writers of County Natural Histories with [his friend] Dr. Robert Plot,[F] who published the earliest of such works—those of Oxford and Staffordshire, in 1677 and 1686 respectively. He seems, however, to have preferred contributing to the labours of those whom he considered better naturalists than himself; and in his third attempt thus to render his observations useful he had somewhat better success. He placed his materials, including a number of coloured drawings, at the disposal of Ray, the father of systematic Natural History in Great Britain, who has acknowledged the assistance he derived from him in his editions of Willughby's 'Ornithology' and 'Ichthyology,' especially in the former. But Browne, it seems, found it more easy to lend than to recover such materials; for he complains, several years afterwards, that these drawings, of whose safe return he was assured, both by Ray and by their mutual friend, Sir Philip Skippon, had not been sent back to him."[G]

I have endeavoured to reproduce as accurately as possible the text of the notes and letters, which, as will be seen from the example photographed for the frontispiece of this volume, was often very difficult to decipher. The originals of the notes and of seven of the nine letters to Merrett, as also the two letters in Appendix A., are in the Sloane Collection of MSS. in the British Museum Library; those numbered vii. and viii., as well as two letters in Appendix D., which have not hitherto been printed, are in the Bodleian Library; and the letter to Dugdale in Appendix B. is extracted from the "Eastern Counties Collectanea." All the MSS. in the Sloane Collection I have transcribed myself; of those in the Bodleian Library, No. vii. is from a photograph, the remainder were copied for me by a person recommended as being highly reliable. I thought it best to retain all the erasures and interlineations in order to show as much as possible what was passing in their author's mind: in the foot-notes I have sought to acknowledge in situ the valuable help I received from numerous correspondents to whom my best thanks are due, but I owe a special debt of gratitude to Professor Newton, at whose instigation the work was undertaken, for his kind assistance and for the loan of scarce books which it was necessary to consult in the interesting investigations needful to elucidate, if possible, some of the obscure passages in the text, a task in which if with the best intentions should I have sometimes failed, I must ask the reader's indulgence.

It may be truly said of Sir Thomas Browne that a prophet hath no honour in his own country; the writings of this remarkable man are little known in the city of his adoption, and a recent movement to erect a monument to his memory has hitherto met with feeble support.

T. S.

Norwich, December, 1901.

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[MSS. SLOAN. 1830. FOL. 5-19. AND 31.]

[Fol. 5.] I willingly obey your comands[1] in setting down such birds fishes & other animals wch for many years I have observed in Norfolk.

Beside the ordinarie birds which keep constantly in the country many are discouerable both in winter & summer wch are of a migrant nature & exchange their seats according to the season.[2] those wch come in the spring coming for the most part from the southward those wch come in the Autumn or winter from the northward. so that they are obserued to come in great flocks with a north east wind & to depart with a south west. nor to come [in struck out] only in flocks of one kind butt teals woodcocks felfars thrushes & small birds to come & light together. for the most part some hawkes & birds of pray attending them.

The great & noble kind of Agle calld Aquila Gesneri[3] I have not seen in this country but one I met with [with crossed out] in this country brought from ireland wch I [presented unto struck out] kept 2 yeares, feeding it with whelpes cattes ratts & the like. in all that while not giving it any water wch I afterwards presented unto the [colledge of physitians at London struck out] my worthy friend Dr Scarburgh.

of other sorts of Agles there are severall kinds especially of the Halyætus or fenne Agles some of 3 yards & a quarter from the extremitie of the wings. whereof one being taken aliue grewe so tame that it went about the yard feeding on fish redherrings flesh & any offells without the least trouble.

There is also a lesser sort of Agle called an ospray[4] wch houers about the fennes & broads & will dippe his [foot crossed out] claws & take up a fish oftimes for wch his foote is made of an extraordinarie roughnesse for the better fastening & holding of it & the like they will do unto cootes.

[Fol. 6.] Aldrovandus takes particular notice of the great number of Kites[5] about London & about the Thames. wee are not without them heare though not in such numbers. there are also the gray & bald Buzzard[6] [wch the all wth crossed out] of all wch the great number of broad waters & warrens makes no small number & more than in woodland counties.

Cranes[7] are often seen here in hard winters especially about the champian & feildie part it seems they have been more plentifull for in a bill of fare when the maior entertaind the duke of norfolk I meet with Cranes in a dish.

In hard winters elkes[8] a kind of wild swan are seen in no small numbers. in whom & not in com̄on swans is remarkable that strange recurvation of the windpipe through the sternon. & the same is also obseruable in cranes. tis probable they come very farre for all the northern discouerers have [ha struck out] obserued them in the remotest parts & like diuers [&] other northern birds if the winter bee mild they com̄only come no further southward then scotland if very hard they go lower & seeke more southern places. wch is the cause that sometimes wee see them not before christmas or the hardest time of winter.

A white large & strong billd fowle called a Ganet[9] which seemes to bee the greater sort of Larus. whereof I met with one kild by a greyhound neere swaffam another in marshland while it fought & would not bee forced to take wing another intangled in an herring net wch taken aliue was fed with herrings for a while it may be named Larus maior Leucophæopterus as being white & the top of the wings browne.

[Fol. 7.] In hard winters I have also met with that large & strong billd fowle wch clusius describeth by the name of Skua Hoyeri[10] [fr struck out] sent him from the faro Island by Hoierus a physitian. one whereof was shot at Hickling while 2 thereof were feeding upon a dead horse.

As also that [strong struck out] large & strong billd fowle [Clusius nameth struck out] spotted like a starling wch clusius nameth Mergus maior farrœnsis[11] as frequenting the faro islands seated above shetland. one whereof I sent unto my worthy friend Dr Scarburgh.

Here is also the pica marina[12] or seapye many sorts of Lari,[13] seamewes & cobs. the Larus maior in great abundance [about struck out] in [written above] herring time about yarmouth.

Larus alba or puets in such plentie about Horsey that they sometimes bring them in carts to norwich & sell them at small rates. & the country people make use of their egges in puddings & otherwise. great plentie thereof haue bred about scoulton [mere struck out] meere, & from thence sent to London.

Larus cinereus greater & smaller, butt a coars meat. commonly called sternes.

Hirundo marina or sea swallowe a neat white & forked tayle bird butt longer then a swallowe.

The ciconia or stork[14] I have seen in the fennes & some haue been shot in the marshes between this and yarmouth. [See also third letter to Merrett and Appendix D.]

[Fol. 8.] The platea or shouelard,[15] wch build upon the topps of high trees. they haue formerly built in the Hernerie at claxton & Reedham now at Trimley in Suffolk. they come in march & are shot by fowlers not for their meat butt the handsomenesse of the same, remarkable in their white colour copped crowne & spoone or spatule like bill.

corvus marinus. cormorants.[16] building at Reedham upon trees from whence King charles the first was wont to bee supplyed. beside the Rock cormorant wch breedeth in the rocks in northerne countries & cometh to us in the winter, somewhat differing from the other in largenesse & whitenesse under the wings.

A sea fowl called a shearwater,[17] somewhat billed like a cormorant butt much lesser a strong & feirce fowle houering about shipps when they [clense struck out] cleanse their fish. 2 were kept 6 weekes cram̄ing them with fish wch they would not feed on of themselues. the seamen told mee they had kept them 3 weekes without meat. & I giuing ouer to feed them found they liued 16 dayes without [any hin struck out] taking any thing.

Barnacles[18] Brants Branta [wer struck out] are com̄on

sheldrakes sheledracus jonstoni

Barganders a noble coloured fowle vulpanser wch breed in cunny burrowes about norrold & other places.

[Fol. 9.] Wild geese Anser ferus.

scoch goose Anser scoticus.

Goshander,[19] merganser.

Mergus acutirostris speciosus or Loone an handsome & specious fowle cristated & with diuided finne feet placed very backward and after the manner of all such wch the Duch call [Assf struck out] Arsvoote.[20] they haue a peculiar formation in the leggebone wch hath a long & sharpe processe extending aboue the thigh bone [it struck out] they come about April & breed in the broad waters so making their nest on the water that their egges are seldom drye while they are sett on.

Mergus acutarostris cinereus [another d struck out] wch seemeth to bee a difference of the former.

Mergus minor the smaller diuers or dabchicks in riuers & broade waters.

Mergus serratus the saw billd diuer bigger & longer than a duck distinguished from other diuers by a notable sawe bill to retaine its slipperie pray as liuing much upon eeles whereof we haue seldome fayled to find some in their bellies.

Diuers other sorts of diuefowle more remarkable the mustela fusca & mustela variegata[21] the graye dunne & the variegated or partie coloured wesell so called from the resemblance it beareth vnto a wesell in the head.

[Fol. 12.[I]] many sorts of wild ducks[22] wch passe under names well knowne unto the fowlers though of no great signification as smee [wige struck out] widgeon Arts ankers noblets.

the most remarkable are Anas platyrinchos [sic] a remarkably broad bild duck.

And the sea phaysant holding some resemblance unto that bird [in the tayle crossed out] in some fethers in the tayle.

Teale Querquedula. wherein scarce any place more abounding. the condition of the country & the very many decoys [mo struck out] especially between Norwich and the sea making this place very much to abound in wild fowle.

fulicæ cottæ cootes[23] in very great flocks upon the broad waters. upon the appearance of a Kite or buzzard I have seen them vnite from all parts of the shoare in strange numbers when if the Kite stoopes neare them they will fling up [and] spred such a flash of water up with there wings that they will endanger the Kite. & so [es struck out] keepe him of [in of struck out] agayne & agayne in open opposition. & an handsome prouision they make about their nest agaynst the same bird of praye by bending & twining the rushes & reeds so about them that they cannot stoope at their yong ones or the damme while she setteth.

Gallinula aquatica[24] more hens.

And a kind of Ralla aquatica or water Rayle.

[Fol. 13.] An onocrotalus or pelican[25] shott upon Horsey fenne 1663 May 22 wch stuffed and cleansed I yet retaine it was 3 yards & half between the extremities of the wings the chowle & beake answering the vsuall discription the extremities of the wings for a spanne deepe browne the rest of the body white. a fowle [not found struck out] wch none could remember upon this coast. about the same time I heard one of the kings pellicans was lost at St James', perhaps this might bee the same.

Anas Arctica clusii wch though hee placeth about the faro Islands is the same wee call a puffin com̄on about Anglisea in wales & sometimes [for struck out] taken upon our seas not sufficiently described by the name of puffinus the bill being so remarkably differing from other ducks & not horizontally butt meridionally formed to feed in the clefts of the rocks of insecks, shell-fish & others.

The great number of riuers riuulets & plashes of water makes hernes [to abound in these struck out] & herneries to abound in these parts. yong hensies being esteemed a festiuall dish & much desired by some palates.

The Ardea stellaris botaurus, or bitour[26] is also com̄on & esteemed the better dish. in the belly of one I found a frog in an hard frost at christmas. another I kept in a garden 2 yeares feeding it with fish mice & frogges. in defect whereof making a scrape for sparrowes & small birds, the bitour made shifft to maintaine herself upon them.

[Fol. 14.] Bistardæ or Bustards[27] are not vnfrequent in the champain & feildie part of this country a large Bird accounted a dayntie dish, obseruable in the strength of the brest bone & short heele layes an egge much larger then a Turkey.

Morinellus or Dotterell[28] about Thetford & the champain wch comes vnto us in september & march staying not long. & is an excellent dish.

There is also a sea dotterell somewhat lesse butt better coloured then the former.

Godwyts taken chiefly in marshland, though other parts not without them accounted the dayntiest dish in England & I think for the bignesse, of the biggest price.

Gnatts or Knots [only so far on p. 14, but as follows on fol. 13 verso].

Gnats or Knots a small bird which taken with netts grow excessively fatt. If [by mew struck out] being mewed & fed with corne a candle lighted in the roome they feed day & night, & when they are at their hight of fattnesse they beginne to grow lame & are then killed or [else they will fall aw struck out] as at their prime & apt to decline.

[resume p. 14.] Erythropus or Redshanck a bird com̄on in the marshes & of com̄on food butt no dayntie dish.

A may chitt[29] a small dark gray bird litle bigger then a stint of fatnesse beyond any. it comes in may into marshland & other parts & abides not aboue a moneth or 6 weekes.

[fol. 13 verso.] Another small bird somewhat larger than a stint called a churre & is com̄only taken amongst them.

[resume fol. 14.] Stints in great numbers about the seashore & marshes about stifkey Burnham & other parts.

Pluuialis or plouer green & graye in great plentie about Thetford & many other heaths. they breed not with us butt in some parts of scotland, and plentifully in Island [Iceland].

[Fol. 15.] The lapwing or vannellus com̄on ouer all the heaths.

Cuccowes[30] of 2 sorts the one farre exceeding the other in bignesse. some have attempted to keepe them in warme roomes all the winter butt it hath not succeeded. in their migration they range very farre northward for in the summer they are to bee found as high as Island.

Avis pugnax. Ruffes[31] a marsh bird of the greatest varietie of colours euery one therein somewhat varying from other. The female is called a Reeve without any ruffe about the neck, lesser then the other & hardly to bee got. They are almost all cocks & putt together fight & destroy each other. & prepare themselues to fight like cocks though they seeme to haue no other offensive part butt the bill. they loose theire Ruffes about the Autumne or beginning of winter as wee haue obserued [they struck out] keeping them in a garden from may till the next spring. they most abound in Marshland butt are also in good number in the marshes between norwich & yarmouth.

Of picus martius[32] or woodspeck many kinds. The green the Red the Leucomelanus or neatly marked [red crossed out] black & white & the cinereus or dunne calld [a re struck out] little [bird calld written above] a nuthack. remarkable in the larger are the hardnesse of the bill & skull & the long nerues wch tend vnto the tongue whereby it strecheth out the tongue aboue an inch out of the mouth & so [lik crossed out] licks up insecks. they make the holes in trees without any consideration of the winds or quarters of heauen butt as the rottenesse thereof best affordeth conuenience.

[fol. 15 verso.] black heron[33] black on both sides the bottom of the neck neck [sic] white gray on the outside spotted all along with black on the inside a black coppe of small feathers some a spanne long. bill poynted and yallowe 3 inches long

back heron coloured intermixed with long white fethers

the flying (?) fethers black

the brest black & white most black

the legges & feet not green but an ordinarie dark cork [?] colour.

[Fol. 16.] The number of riuulets becks & streames whose banks are beset with willowes & Alders wch giue occasion of easier fishing & slooping to the water makes that [bir crossed out] handsome coulered bird abound wch is calld Alcedo Ispida or the King fisher. they bild in holes about grauell pitts [have their nests very full crossed out] wherein [are crossed out] is [above] to bee found great quantitie of small fish bones. & lay [a crossed out] very handsome round & as it were polished egges.

An Hobby bird[34] so calld becaus it comes in ether with or a litle before the Hobbies in the spring. of the bignesse of a Thrush coloured & paned[J] like an hawke marueliously subiet to the vertigo & and are sometimes taken in those fitts.

Upupa or Hoopebird[35] so named from its note a gallant marked bird wch I have often seen & tis not hard to shoote them.

Ringlestones[36] a small [bird crossed out] white & black bird like a wagtayle & seemes to bee some kind of motacilla marina com̄on about yarmouth sands. they lay their egges in the sand & shingle about june and as the eryngo diggers tell mee not sett them flat butt upright likes [sic] egges in [a crossed out] salt.

The Arcuata or curlewe frequent about the sea coast.

[Fol. 17.] There is also an handsome tall bird Remarkably eyed and with a bill not aboue 2 inches long com̄only calld a stone curlewe[37] butt the note thereof more resembleth that of a green plouer [it crossed out] & breeds about Thetford about the stones & shingle of the Riuers.

Auoseta[38] calld [I thinck a Barker crossed out] shoohingg-horne [written above] a tall black & white bird with a bill semicircularly reclining or bowed upward so that it is not easie to conceiue how it can feed answerable vnto the Auoseta Italorum in Aldrovandus a summer marsh bird & not unfrequent in Marshland.

[A bird calld Barker from the note it hath crossed out]

A yarwhelp[39] so thought to bee named from its note a gray bird intermingled with some yellowish [whitish written above] fethers [the bill crossed out] somewhat long legged & the bill about an inch & half. esteemed a dayntie dish.

Loxias or curuirostra a bird a litle bigger than a Thrush of fine colours & prittie note [the m crossed out] differently from other birds, the [lower crossed out] upper & lower bill crossing each other. of a very tame nature, comes about the beginning of summer. I have known them kept in cages butt not to outliue the winter.

A kind of coccothraustes calld a [cobble crossed out] coble bird[40] bigger than a Thrush, finely coloured & shaped like a Bunting [it comes crossed out] it is [sometimes crossed out] chiefly [written above] seen [about crossed out] in sum̄er about cherrie time.

[fol. 16 verso.] A small bird of prey[41] [something smeared out here] calld a birdcatcher about the bignesse of a Thrush and linnet coloured with a longish white bill & sharpe of a very feirce & wild nature though kept in a cage & fed with flesh. [Added after in same hand but fresher ink] a kind of Lanius [Lanius crossed out and written more distinctly under].

[p. 17 resumed.] A Dorhawke[42] or kind of Accipiter muscarius conceiued to haue its name from feeding upon flies & beetles. of a woodcock colour but paned like an Hawke a very litle poynted bill. large throat. breedeth with us & layes a maruellous handsome spotted egge. Though I haue opened many I could neuer find anything considerable in their mawes. caprimulgus.

[Fol. 18.] Auis Trogloditica[43] or Chock a small bird mixed of black & white & breeding in cony borrouges whereof the warrens are full from April to September. at which time they leaue the country. they are taken with an Hobby and a net and are a very good dish.

Spermologus. [sic] Rookes wch by reason of the [in reason of crossed out] great quantitie of corn feilds & Rooke groues are in great plentie the yong ones are com̄only eaten sometimes sold in norwich market & many are killd for their Liuers in order to cure of the Rickets.

Crowes[44] as euerywhere and also the coruus variegatus or pyed crowe with dunne & black interchangeably they come in the winter & depart in the summer & seeme to bee the same wch clusius discribeth in the faro Islands from whence perhaps these come. [they are crossed out] and I have seen them [written above] very com̄on in Ireland, butt not known in many parts of England.

Coruus maior Rauens in good plentie about the citty wch makes so few Kites to bee seen hereabout. they build in woods very early & lay egges in februarie.

Among the many monedulas or Jackdawes I could neuer in these parts obserue the pyrrhocorax or cornish chough with red leggs & bill to bee com̄only seen in Cornwall. & though there bee heere very great [num crossed out] store of partridges yet [not crossed out] the french Red leggd partridge[45] is not to bee met with [heere crossed out]. the Ralla or Rayle[46] wee haue counted a dayntie dish. as also no small number of Quayles. the Heathpoult[47] com̄on in the north is vnknown heere as also the Grous. though I haue heard some haue been seen about Lynne. the calandrier or great [Fol. 19] great [sic] crested lark Galerita I haue not met with heere though with 3 other sorts [of Larkes written above] the ground lark woodlark & titlark.

Stares or starlings in great numbers. most remarkable in their [great crossed out] numerous [written above] flocks [about the crossed out] wch I haue obserued about the Autumne when they roost at night [up crossed out] in the marshes in safe place upon reeds & alders. wch to obserue I went to the marshes about sunne set. where standing by their vsuall place of resort I obserued very many flocks flying from all quarters. wch in lesse than an howers space came all in & settled in innumerable [quantitie crossed out] numbers [written below] in a small compasse.

Great varietie of finches[48] and other small birds whereof one very small [one crossed out] calld a whinne bird marked with fine yellow spotts & lesser than a wren. there is also a small bird called a chipper somewhat resembling the former wch comes in the spring & feeds upon the first buddings of birches & other early trees.

A kind of Anthus [or crossed out] Goldfinch [written above] or fooles coat com̄only calld a drawe water. finely marked with red & yellowe & a white bill. wch they take with trap cages in norwich gardens & fastning a chaine about them tyed to a box of water it makes a shift with bill and legge to draw up the water unto it from the litle pot hanging [abot the length of crossed out] by the chaine about a foote [downe crossed out] belowe.

[The account of the Roller, which is written on smaller paper, will be found improperly inserted among the Fishes, between pp. 30 and 32 as follows:—]

[Fol. 31.] On the xiiii of May 1664 a very rare bird was sent mee kild about crostwick wch seemed to bee some kind of Jay.[49] the bill was black strong and bigger then a Jayes somewhat yellowe clawes tippd black. 3 before and one clawe behind the whole bird not so bigge as a Jaye [the crossed out.]

The head neck & throat of a violet colour the back upper parts of the wing of a russet yellowe the fore & part of the wing azure succeeded downward by a greenish blewe then on the flying feathers bright blewe the lower parts of the wing outwardly of a browne [the crossed out] inwardly of a merry blewe the belly a light faynt blewe the back toward the tayle of a purple blewe the tayle eleuen fethers of a greenish coulour the extremities of the outward fethers thereof white wth an eye[K] of greene. Garrulus Argentoratensis [the name added in a different ink and pen].

---

[MS. SLOAN. 1882. FOL. 145-146. ALTERED TO 21 AND 22, AND 1830 FOL. 23-30 AND 32-38.]

[Fol. 21/145.] It may well seeme no easie matter to giue any considerable account of fishes and animals of the sea wherein tis sayd that there are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts because they liue in an element wherein they are not so easely discouerable notwithstanding probable it is that after this long nauigation search of the ocean bayes creeks Estuaries and riuers that there is scarce any fish butt hath been seen by some man for the large & breathing sort thereof do sometimes discouer themselues aboue water and the other are in such numbers that some at one time or other they are discouered and taken euen the most barbarous nations being much addicted to fishing and in America and the new discouered world the people were well acquantd with fishes of sea and riuers, and the fishes thereof haue been since described by industrious writers.

Pliny seemes to short in the estimate of their number in the ocean, who recons up butt one hundred & seventie six species. butt the seas being now farther known & searched [21/145 verso] Bellonius much enlargeth.

and in his booke of Birds thus deliuereth himself allthough I think it impossible to reduce the same vnto a certain number yet I may freelie say that tis beyond the power of man to find out more than fiue hundred sorts [kinds written above] of fishes three hundred sorts of birds more than three hundred sorts of fourfoted animalls and fortie diversities of serpents.[50]

[SLOANE MSS. 1830, FOL. 23-38.]

[Fol. 23.] Of fishes sometimes the larger sort are taken or come ashoar. A spermaceti whale[51] of 62 foote long neere Welles. another of the same kind 20 yeares before at Hunstanton. & not farre of 8 or nine came ashoare & 2 had yong ones after they were forsaken by ye water.

A grampus aboue 16 foot long taken at yarmouth [3 or crossed out] 4 yeares agoe.

The Tursio or porpose is com̄on the Dolphin[52] more rare though sometimes taken wch many confound with the porpose. butt it hath a more waued line along the skinne sharper toward ye tayle the head longer and nose more extended wch maketh good the figure of Rondeletius. the flesh more red & [fa crossed out] well cooked of very good taste to most palates & exceedeth that of porpose.

The vitulus marinus[53] seacalf or seale wch is often taken sleeping on the shoare [4 crossed out] 5 [written above] yeares agoe one was shot in the riuer of norwich about surlingham [wh crossed out] ferry having continued in the riuer for diuers moneths before being an Amphibious animal it may bee caryed about aliue & kept long if it can bee brought to feed some haue been kept many moneths in ponds. the pizzell the bladder the cartilago ensiformis the figure of the Throttle the clusterd & racemous forme of the kidneys [Fol. 24] the flat & compressed heart are remarkable in it. in stomaks of all that I have opened I have found many [short crossed out] wormes.

I haue also obserued a scolopendra cetacea[54] of about ten foot long answering to the figure in Rondeletius wch the mariners told me was taken in these seas.

A pristes or serra [written above] saw fish[55] taken about Lynne com̄only mistaken for a [sha crossed out] sword fish & answers the figure in Rondeletius.

A sword fish or Xiphias or Gladius intangled in the Herring netts at yarmouth agreable unto the Icon in Johnstonus with a smooth sword not vnlike the Gladius of Rondeletius about a yard & half long, no teeth [n crossed out] eyes very remarkable enclosed in an hard cartilaginous couercle about ye bignesse of a good apple. ye vitreous humor plentifull the crystalline larger then a nutmegge [cleare crossed out] remaining cleare sweet & vntainted when the rest of the eye was vnder a deepe corruption wch wee kept clear & limpid many moneths vntill an hard frost split it & manifested the foliations thereof.

It is not vnusuall to take seuerall sorts of canis or doggefishes[56] great and small wch pursue the shoale of herrings and other fish butt this yeare 1662 one was taken intangled in the Herring netts about 9 foot in length, answering the last figure of Johnstonus lib 7 vnder the name of canis carcherias alter & was by the teeth & 5 gills one kind of shark particularly [Fol. 25] remarkable in the vastnesse of the optick nerves & 3 conicall hard pillars wch supported the extraordinarie elevated nose wch wee haue reserued with the scull the seamen calld this kind a scrape.

Sturio or Sturgeon[57] so com̄on on the other side of the sea about the mouth of the elbe come seldome into our creekes though some haue been taken at yarmouth & more in the great [owse crossed out] Owse by Lynne butt their heads not so sharpe as represented in the Icons of Rondeletius & Johnstonus.

Sometimes wee meet with a mola or moonefish[58] so called from some resemblance it hath [from crossed out] of a crescent in the extreme part of the body from one finne unto another one being taken neere the shoare at yarmouth before breake of day seemed to shiuer & grunt like an hogge as Authors deliuer of it the flesh being hard & neruous it is not like to afford a good dish butt from the Liuer wch is [white crossed out] large white & tender somewhat [wee crossed out] may bee expected [for crossed out] the gills of these fishes wee found thick beset with a kind of sealowse. [Added subsequently] in the yeare 1667 a mola was taken at monsley wch weighed 2 [p crossed out] hundred pound.

The Rana piscatrix or frogge fish[59] is sometimes found in a very large magnitude & wee haue taken the [paynes crossed out] care [written above] to haue them clend & stuffed. wherein wee obserued all the appendices whereby the[y] cach fishes butt much larger then are discribed in the Icons of Johnstonus tab xi fig 8.

[Fol. 26] The sea [wollf crossed out] wolf or Lupus nostras of Schoneueldus remarkable for its spotted skinne & notable teeth incisors Dogteeth & grinders the dogteeth [in the crossed out] both in the jawes & palate scarce answerable by any fish of that bulk for [strength crossed out] the like disposure strength & soliditie.

Mustela marina[60] called by some a wesell ling wch salted & dryed becomes a good Lenten dish.

A Lump or Lumpus Anglorum so named by Aldrouandus by some esteemed a festiuall dish though it affordeth butt a glutinous jellie & the skinne is beset with stony knobs after no certaine order ours most answereth the first figure in the xiii table of Johnstonus butt seemes more round & arcuated then that figure makes it.

Before the herrings there com̄only cometh a fish about a foot long by the fish man called an horse[61] resembling in all poynts the Trachurus of Rondeletius of a mixed shape between a mackerell & an herring. obseruable from [an oblique bo crossed out] its greene eyes rarely skye colored back after it is kept a day & an oblique bony line running on ye outside from the gills vnto ye tayle. a drye & hard dish butt makes an handsome picture.

The Rubelliones or Rochets[62] butt thinly met with on this coast. the gornart cuculus or Lyræ species more often wch they seldome eat butt bending the back & sprdding the finnes into a liuely posture do hang them up in their howses.

[Fol. 27.] Beside the com̄on mullus[63] or mullet there is another not vnfrequent wch some call a cunny fish butt rather a red muellett of a flosculous redde & somewhat rough on the scales answering the discription of [Rond crossed out] Icon of Rondeletius vnder the name of mullus ruber asper [no crossed out] butt not the tast of the vsually knowne mullet as [being butt crossed out] affording butt a drye & leane bitt.

Seuerall sorts of fishes[64] there are wch [bear crossed out] do [written above] or may beare the names of seawoodcocks as the Acus maior scolopax & saurus. the saurus wee sometimes meet with yonge. Rondeletius confesseth it a very rare fish somewhat resembling the Acus or needlefish before & a makerell behind. wee have kept one dryed many yeares agoe.

The Acus maior calld by some a garfish & greenback answering ye figure of Rondeletius under the name of Acus prima species remarkable for its quadrangular figure and verdigreece green back bone.

[L] A lesser sort of Acus [wee crossed out] maior or primæ specæei wee meet with [answering the saurus of Rondeletius crossed out] much shorter then the com̄on garfish & in taking out the spine wee found it not green as in the greater & much answering the saurus of Rondeletius.

A scolopax[65] or sea woodcock of Rondeletius was giuen mee by a seaman of these seas. about 3 inches long & seemes to bee one kind of Acus or needlefish answering the discription of Rondeletius.

The Acus of Aristotle [see Note 64] lesser thinner corticated & sexangular by diuers calld an addercock & somewhat resembling a snake ours more plainly finned then Rondeletius discribeth it.

A little corticated fish[66] about [4 inches crossed out] 3 or 4 inches long [several words smeared out] ours answering that wch is named piscis octangularis by wormius, cataphractus by Schoneueldeus. octagonius versus caput, versus caudam hexagonius.

[Fol. 28.] The faber marinus[67] sometimes found very large answering ye figure of Rondeletius. which though hee mentioneth as a rare fish & to be found in the Atlantick & Gaditane ocean yet wee often meet with it in these seas com̄only calld a peterfish hauing [a crossed out] one [written above] black spot on ether side the body conceued the perpetuall signature from the impression of St Peters fingers or to resemble the 2 peeces of money wch St Peter tooke out of this fish remarkable also from its disproportionable mouth & many hard prickles about other parts.

A kind of scorpius marinus[68] a rough prickly & monstrous headed fish 6 8 or 12 inches long answerable vnto the figure of Schoneueldeus.

A sting fish[69] wiuer or kind of ophidion or Araneus slender, narrowe headed about 4 inches long wth a sharpe small prickly finne along the back which often venemously pricketh the hands of fishermen.

Aphia cobites marina[70] or sea Loche.

Blennus a sea millars thumb.

Funduli marini sea gogions.

Alosæ or chads to bee met with about Lynne.

Spinachus or smelt[71] in greatest plentie about Lynne butt [com̄on on yarmouth coast crossed out] where they haue also a small fish calld a primme answering in [all crossed out] tast & shape a smelt & perhaps are butt the yonger sort thereof.

[Fol 29.] Aselli or cods of seuerall sorts. Asellus albus or whitings in great plentie. Asellus niger carbonarius or [col crossed out] coale fish. Asellus minor Schoneueldei callarias pliny or Haydocks with many more also a weed fish somewhat like an haydock butt larger & dryer meat. A Basse also much resembling a flatter kind of Cod.[72]

Scombri are makerells[73] in greate plentie a dish much desired butt if as Rondeletius affirmeth they feed upon sea starres & squalders (see Note 90) there may bee some doubt whether their flesh bee without some ill qualitie sometimes they are of a very large size & one was taken this yeare 1668 wch was by measure an ell long and of ye length of a good salmon, at Lestoffe.

Herrings departed sprats or sardæ not long after succeed in great plentie wch are taken with smaller nets [& dryed crossed out] & smoakd & dryed like herrings become a [daint crossed out] sapid bitt & vendible abroad.

Among these are found Bleakes or bliccæ[74] a thinne herring like fishe wch some will also think to bee young herrings. And though the sea aboundeth not with pilchards, yet they are com̄only taken among herrings. butt few esteeme thereof or eat them.

Congers are not so com̄on on these coasts as on many seas about England, butt are often found upon the north coast of Norfolk, & in frostie wether left in pulks & plashes upon the ebbe of the sea.

[Fol. 30.] The sand eels Anglorum of Aldrouandus, or Tobianus of Schoneueldeus com̄only called smoulds taken out of the sea sands with forks & rakes about Blakeney and Burnham a small round slender fish about 3 or 4 inches long as bigge as a small Tobacco pipe a very dayntie dish.

Pungitius marinus[75] or sea bansticle hauing a prickle one each side the smallest fish of the sea about an inch long sometimes drawne ashoare with netts together with weeds & pargaments[M] of the sea.

Many sorts of flat fishes[76] The pastinaca oxyrinchus with a long & strong aculeus in the tayle conceuud of speciall venome & virtues.

Severall sorts of Raia's skates & Thornebacks the Raia clauata oxyrinchus, raia oculata, aspera, spinosa fullonica.

The great Rhombus or Turbot aculeatus & leuis.

The passer or place.

Butts of various kinds.

The passer squamosus Bret Bretcock[77] & skulls comparable in taste and delicacy vnto the soale.

The Buglossus solea or soale[78] plana & oculata as also the Lingula or small soale all in very great plentie.

Sometimes a fish aboue half a yard long like a butt[79] or soale called asprage wch I haue known taken about Cromer.

[Fol. 31.] [See Roller ante p. 30.]

[Fol. 32.] Sepia or cuttle fish[80] [smear] & great plentie of the bone or shellie substance which sustaineth the whole bulk of that soft fishe found com̄only on the shoare.

The Loligo sleue or calamar found often upon the shoare from head to tayle [such crossed out] sometimes aboue an ell long, remarkable for its parretlike bill, the gladiolus or calamus along the back & the notable crystallyne of the eye wch equalleth if not exceedeth the lustre of orientall pearle.

A polypus another kind of the mollia[N] sometimes wee haue met with.

Lobsters in great number about sheringham and cromer from whence all the country is supplyed.

Astacus marinus pediculi [marini written above] facie[81] found also in that place. with the aduantage of ye long foreclawes about 4 inches long.

Crabs large & well tasted found also in the same coast.

Another kind of crab[82] taken for cancer fluuiatilis litle slender & of a very quick motion found in the Riuer running through yarmouth. [added subsequently] & in bliburgh riuer.

[Fol. 33.] Oysters exceeding large about Burnham and [Huns crossed out] Hunstanton like those of poole St Mallowes or ciuita [vech crossed out] vechia whereof [some crossed out] many are eaten rawe the shells being broakin with [cle crossed out] cleuers the greater part pickled & sent weekly to London & other parts.

Mituli or muscles in great quantitie as also chams or cochles about stiskay [sic] & ye northwest coast.

Pectines pectunculi varij or scallops of the lesser sort.

Turbines or smaller wilks, leues, striati. as also Trochi, Trochili, or scaloppes finely variegated & pearly. [as also crossed out.] Lewise [sic] purpuræ minores, nerites, cochleæ, Tellinæ.

Lepades, patellæ Limpets, of an vniualue shell wherein an animal like a snayle cleauing fast unto the rocks.

Solenes cappe lunge venetorum com̄only a razor fish the shell thereof dentalia

[The MS. breaks off here, and the next paragraph appears to be an interpolation.]

Dentalia by some called pinpaches because pinmeat thereof is taken out with a pinne or needle.[83]

Cancellus Turbinum et neritis[84] Barnard the Hermite of Rondeletius a kind of crab or astacus liuing in a forsaken wilk or nerites.

echinus echinometrites[85] sea hedghogge whose neat shells are com̄on on the shoare the fish aliue often taken [with crossed out] by the dragges among the oysters.

[This and the next paragraph on fol. 33 verso.]

Balani[86] a smaller sort of vniualue growing com̄only in clusters. the smaller kinds thereof to bee found oftimes upon oysters wilks & lobsters.

Concha anatifera or Ansifera or Barnicleshell whereof about 4 yeares past were found upon the shoare no small number by yarmouth hanging by slender strings of a kind of Alga vnto seuerall splinters or [clefts crossed out] cleauings of firre boards vnto wch they were seuerally fastned & hanged like ropes of onyons: their shell flat & of a peculiar forme differing from other shelles, this being of four diuisions. containing a small imperfect animal at the lower part diuided into many shootes or streames wch prepossed [imag crossed out] spectators fancy to bee the rudiment of the tayle of some goose or duck to bee [expute crossed out] produced from it. some whereof in ye shell & some taken out & spred upon paper wee shall [still?] keepe by us.

[Fol. 34.] Stellæ marinæ[87] or sea starres in great plentie especially about yarmouth. whether they bee bred out of the [vrticas crossed out] vrticæ squalders or sea gellies as many report wee cannot confirme butt the squalderes in the middle seeme to haue some lines or first draughts not unlike. our starres exceed not 5 poynts though I haue heard that some with more haue been found about Hunstanton and Burnham. where are also found stellæ marinæ testacæ or handsome crusted & brittle sea [stars crossed out] starres much lesse.

The pediculus[88] and culex marin us the sea lowse & flie are [are crossed out] also no strangeres.

Physsalus Rondeletij[89] or eruca marina physsaloides according to the icon of Rondeletius of very orient green & purple bristles.

Urtica marina[90] of diuers kinds some whereof called squalderes. of a burning and stinging qualitie if rubbed in the hand. the water thereof may afford a good cosmetick.

[The next paragraph on folio 33 verso is evidently added subsequently.]

Another elegant sort that is often found cast up by shoare in great numbers about ye bignesse of a button cleere & welted & may bee called fibula marina crystallina.

hirudines marini or sea Leaches.[91]

vermes marini very large wormes digged a yarde deepe out of the sands at the ebbe for bayt. tis known where they are to bee found by a litle flat ouer them on ye surface of ye sand. as also vermes in tubulis testacei. Also Tethya or sea dugges some whereof resemble fritters [and crossed out] the vesicaria marina also & [see Note 91] fanago sometimes very large conceaued to proceed from some testaceous animals. & particularly [Fol. 35] from the purpura butt [in crossed out] ours more probably from other testaceous wee hauing not met with any large purpura upon this coast.

[A blank space.]

Many riuer fishes also and animals. Salmon[92] no com̄on fish in our riuers though many are taken in the owse. in the Bure or north riuer, in ye waueney or south riuer, in ye [yare or crossed out] norwich riuer butt seldome and in the winter butt 4 yeares ago 15 were taken at Trowes mill [ab crossed out] in Xtmas. whose mouths were stuck with small wormes or horsleaches no bigger than fine threads some of these I kept in water 3 moneths if a few drops of blood were putt to the water they would in a litle time looke red. they sensibly grewe bigger then I first found them and were killed by an hard froast freezing the water. most of our Salmons haue a recurued peece of flesh in ye end of the lower iawe wch when they shutt there mouths deepely enters the upper. as Scaliger hath noted in some.

The Riuers lakes & broads[93] abound in [the Lucius or added above] pikes of very large size where also is found the Brama or [breme crossed out] Breme large & well tasted the Tinca or Tench the Rubecula Roach as also Rowds and Dare or Dace perca or pearch great & small. whereof such [as] are are in Braden on this side yarmouth in the mixed water [are gen crossed out] make a dish very dayntie & I think scarce to bee bettered in England. butt the Blea[k] [Fol. 36] the chubbe the barbell [I haue not obserued in these riuers crossed out] to bee found in diues other Riuers in England I haue not obserued in these. As also fewer mennowes then in many other riuers.

The Trutta or trout the Gammarus or crawfish [no crossed out] butt scarce in our riuers butt frequently taken in the Bure or north riuer & in the seuerall branches therof. & very remarkable large crawfishes to bee found in the riuer wch runnes by castleaker & nerford.

The Aspredo perca minor[94] and probably the cernua of Cardan com̄only called a Ruffe in great plentie in norwich Riuers & euen in ye streame of the citty. which though camden appropriates vnto this citty yet they are also found in the riuers of oxforde [&] Cambridge.

Lampetra Lampries great & small[95] found plentifully in norwich riuer & euen in the Citty about may [some crossed out] whereof some are very large & well cooked are counted a dayntie bitt collard up butt especially in pyes.

Mustela fluuiatilis or eele poult[96] to bee had in norwich riuer & [in thalso crossed out] between it & yarmouth as also in the riuers of marshland resembling an eele & a cod. a very good dish & the Liuer thereof well answers the commendations of the Ancients.

[Fol 37.] Godgions or funduli fluuiatiles, many whereof may bee taken within the [citty crossed out] Riuer in the citty:

Capitones fluuiatilis or millers thumbs, pungitius fluuiatilis or stanticles. Aphia cobites fluuiatilis or Loches. in norwich riuers in the runnes about Heueningham heath in the north riuer & streames thereof.

Of eeles[97] the com̄on eele & the glot wch hath somewhat a different shape in the bignesse of the head & is affirmed to have yong ones often found within it. & wee haue found a vterus in the same somewhat answering the icon thereof in Senesinus.

Carpiones carpes plentifull in ponds & sometimes large ones in broads [smear] 2 the largest I euer beheld were [found crossed out] taken [added above] in Norwich Riuer.

[A whole line is smeared out, and a break occurs in the MS. after the observation on the Carp; it then proceeds to notice some other inhabitants of the county which perhaps Browne had difficulty in classifying.]

Though the woods and dryelands about [abound?] with adders and vipers[98] yet are there few snakes about our riuers or meadowes more to bee found in Marsh land butt ponds & plashes abound in Lizards or swifts.

The Gryllotalpa or fencricket com̄on in fenny places butt wee haue met with them also in dry places dung-hills & church yards of this citty.

Beside horseleaches & periwinkles in plashes & standing waters we haue met with vermes setacei or hardwormes butt could neuer conuert horsehayres into them by laying them in water as also the [Fol. 38] the (bis) great Hydrocantharus or black shining water Beetle the forficula, sqilla, corculum and notonecton that swimmeth on its back.

Camden [smear] reports that in former time there haue been [otters crossed out] Beuers in the Riuer of Cardigan in wales. this wee are to sure of that the Riuers great Broads & carres afford great store of otters with us, a [des crossed out] great destroyer of fish as feeding butt from ye vent downewards. [a prey crossed out] not free from being a prey it self for their yong ones haue been found in Buzzards nests. they are accounted no bad dish by many are to bee made very tame and in some howses haue [semed crossed out] serued for turnespitts.

[Blank space.]

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[MS. SLOANE. 1833. FOL. 14.]

No. 1.

"My father to Dr. Meret July 13, 1668."

Most honourd Sir,

[Fol 14.] I take ye boldnesse to salute you as a person of singular worth & learning and whom I very much respect & honour. I presented my service to you by my sonne some months past, and had thought before this time to have done it by him again, but the time of his returne to London being yet uncertaine, I would not deferre these at present unto you. I should be very glad to serve you by any observations of mine against yr. second edition of your Pinax[99] which I cannot sufficiently commende. I have observed and taken notice of many animals in these parts whereof 3 years agoe a learned gentleman of this country desired me to give him some account, which while I was doing ye gentleman my good friend died. I shall only at this time present and name some few unto you which I found not in your catalogue. A Trachurus [see Note 61] which yearly cometh before or in ye head of ye herrings called therefore an horse. Stella marina testacea [see Note 87] which I have often found upon the sea-shoare, an Astacus marinus pediculi marini facie [see Note 81] which is sometimes taken with the lobsters at Cromer in Norfolck. a pungitius marinus [see Note 75] wereof I have known many taken among weeds by fishers who drag by ye Sea-shoare on this coast. A Scarabæus capricornus odoratus[100] which I take to be mentioned by Moufetus fol. 150. I have taken some abroad one in my Seller which I now send he saith nucem moschatam et cinamomum vere Spirat to me it smelt like roses santalum & Ambegris. I have thrice met with Mergus maximus Farensis Clusij, [see Note 11] and have a draught thereof. they were taken about the time of herring fishing at yarmouth one was taken upon the shoare not able to fly away about ten yeares agoe I sent one to Dr. Scarborough. Twice I have met with a Skua Hoyeri [see Note 10] the draught whereof I also have. one was shot in a marsh which I gave unto a gentleman which [sic] I can sende you another was killd feeding upon a dead horse neere a marsh ground. Perusing your catalogue of Plants. upon Acorus verus,[101] I find these wordes found by Dr. Browne neere Lin. wherein probably there may be some mistake, for I cannot affirme nor I doubt any other yt. is found thereabout. Some 25 yeares ago I gave an account of this plant unto [this crossed out] Mr. Goodyeere:[102] & more lately to Dr. How[103] unto whome I sent some notes and a box full of the fresh Juli. This elegant plant groweth very plentifully and beareth its Julus yearly by the bankes of Norwich river [fol. 13 verso] chiefly about Claxton and Surlingham. & also between norwich & Hellsden bridge so that I have known Heigham Church in the suburbes of Norwich strowed all over with it, it hath been transplanted and set on the sides of Marish pondes in severall places of the country where it thrives and beareth ye Julus yearly.

Sesamoides Salamanticum Magnum.[104] Why you omit Sesamoides Salamanticum parvum this groweth not far from Thetford and Brandon and plentifull in neighbour places where I found it and have it in my hortus hyemalis answering ye description in Gerard.

Urtica Romana[105] which groweth with button seede bags is not in yr. catalogue I have founde it to grow wild at [Golston crossed out] Golston by Yarmouth, & transplanted it to other places.[P]

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[MS. SLOANE 1830. FOL. 39-40.]

No. II.

Fol. 39.]

"My second letter to Dr Meret Aug xiiii 1668."

Honord Sr I receiued your courteous letter & am sorry some diuersions have so long delayed this my second vnto you. You are very exact in the account of the fungi. I have met with two,[106] which I have not found in any Author, of which I have sent you a rude draught inclosed. The first an elegant fungus Ligneus found in an hollow sallowe I haue one of them by mee butt without a very good opportunitie dare not send it fearing it should bee broken vnto some it seemed to resemble some noble or princely ornament of the head & so might bee called fungus Regius vnto others a turret, top of a cupola or Lanterne of a building & so might bee named fungus pterygoides, pinnacularis or Lanterniformis you may name it as you please. The second fungus Ligneus teres Antliarum or fungus ligularis longissimus consisting [of crossed out] or made of many wooddy strings about the bignesse of round poynts or Laces some about half a yard long shooting in a bushie forme from the trees wch serue vnderground for pumpes. I have obserued diuers especially in norwich where wells are sunck deep for pumpes.

The fungus phalloides found not farre from norwich large & very fetid answering the description of Hadrianus junius I have a part of one dryed by mee.

Fungus rotundus maior I haue found about x inches in Diameter & half [sic, have?] half a one dryed by mee.

Another small paper containes the rude draughts of fibulæ marinæ pellucidæ, [see Note 90] or sea buttons a kind of squalder & referring to vrtica marina which I haue obserued in great numbers by yarmouth after a flood & easterly winds. They resemble pure crystall buttons chamfered or welted on the sides with 2 small holes at the ends. They cannot bee sent for the included water or thinne gelly soon runneth from them.

Vrtica marina minor jonstoni [see Note 90] I haue often found on this coast. [Continued on fol. 39 verso.]

Physsalus [see Note 89] I haue often found also I haue one dryed but it hath lost its shape & colour.

Galei & caniculæ [see Note 56] are often found I haue a fish hanged up in my yard of 2 yards long taken among the Herrings at yarmouth which is the Canis carcharias alius Johnstoni. Tab. vi fig. 6.

Lupus marinus you mention upon an handsome experiment butt I find it not in the catalogue. This Lupus marinus or Lycostomus is often taken by our seamen wch fish for cods I haue had diuers brought mee. they hang up in many howses in Yarmouth.

Trutta marina is taken with us—a better dish than the Riuer trowt butt of the same bignesse.

Loligo sepia a cuttle page 191 of your Pinax [see Note 80] I conceiue worthy Sr it were best to putt them in 2 distinct lines as distinct species of the Molles. The loligo, calamare or sleue I haue often found cast up on the seashoare & some haue been brought mee by fishermen of aboue [20 crossed out] twentie pound wayet.

Among the fishes of our Norwich riuer wee scarce reckon salmons [see Note 92] yet some are yearly taken. butt all taken in the Riuer or coast haue the end of the lower jaw very much hooked which enters a great way into the upper jaw like a socket. you may find the same though not in figure if you please to read Johnstonus fol 101 I am not satisfied with the conceit of some authors there that is [it?] is a difference of male and female for all ours are thus formed. The fish is thicker than [oth crossed out] ordinarie salmons and very much & more largely spotted whether not rather Beccard gallorum or Anchorago Scaligeri I haue bothe draught & head of one dryed either of wch you may command.

Scyllarus or cancellus in turbine tis probable you have [see Note 84]. haue you cancellus in nerite a small testaceous found upon this coast.

[Fol. 40.] Haue you mullus ruber asper [see Note 63].

Haue [you] piscis octangularis Bivormii?[Q] [see Note 66, also pp. 65 and 87 infra].

vermes marini larger than earthwormes [see Note 91] digged out of the sea sand about 2 foot deepe at an ebbe water for bayte they are discouered by a little hole or sinking of the sand at the top aboue them.

Haue you that handsome colourd [bird crossed out] jay [see Note 49] answering the description of Garrulus Argentoratensis & may be called the parret jay I haue one that was killed upon a tree about 5 yeares ago.

Haue you a may chitt a small dark gray bird [see Note 29] about the bignesse of a stint wch cometh about may & stayeth butt a moneth. a bird of exceeding fattnesse and accounted a daintie dish. they are plentifully taken in marshland and about wisbich.

Haue you a [caprimulgus or written above] dorhawke a bird as bigge as [a] pigeon [see Note 42] with a wide throat bill as little as a titmous & white fethers in the tayle & paned like an hawke.

Succinum rarò occurrit[107] pag 291 of yours. [Should be p. 219] not so rarely on the coast of norfolk. tis usually found in small peeces [butt crossed out] sometimes in peeces of a pound wayght. I haue one by mee fat & fayre of x ounces wayght—jet more often found I haue an handsom peece of xii ounces in wayet.

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No. III.

[Fol. 40 verso.]

"My third letter Sept xiii."

Sr I receaued your courteous Letter and with all respects I now agayne salute you.

The mola piscis is almost yearely taken on our coast [see Note 58] this [last crossed out] year one was taken of about 2 hundred pounds wayght diuers of them I haue opened & haue found many lyce sticking close vnto thier gills whereof I send you some.

In your pinax I find onocrotalus or pellican [see Note 25] whether you meane those at St. James or others brought ouer or such as haue been taken or killed heere I knowe not. I haue one hangd up in my howse wch was shott in a fenne ten miles of about 4 yeares ago and because it was so rare some conjectured it might bee one of those which belonged vnto the King & flewe away.

Ciconia rarò hue aduolat. I haue seen two [see Note 14] one in a watery marsh 8 miles of, another shott whose case is yet to bee seen. [See Appendix D.]

Vitulus marinus. In tractibus borealibus et Scotia [see Note 53]. no raritie upon the coast of Norfolk at a lowe water I haue knowne them taken asleep vnder the cliffes. diuers haue been brought vnto mee. our seale is different from the Mediterranean seale. as hauing a rounder head a shorter and stronger body.

Rana piscatrix I haue often known taken on our coast & some very large [see Note 59].

Xiphias or gladius piscis or sword fish wee haue in our seas [see Note 55]. I haue the head of one which was taken not long ago entangled in the Herring netts the sword aboue 2 foot in length.

Among the whales you may very well putt in the spermacetus [see Note 51] or that remarkably peculiar whale which so aboundeth in spermaceti. about twelve years ago wee had one cast up on our shoare neer welles wch I discribed in a peculiar chapter in the last edition of [Fol. 41] my pseudodoxia epidemica. another was diuers yeares before cast up at Hunstanton. both whose heads are yet to bee seen.

Ophidion or at least ophidion nostras [see Note 69] com̄only called a sting fish hauing a small prickley finne running all along the back, & another a good way on the belly, with little black spotts at the bottom of the back finne if the fishermens hands bee touched or scrached with this venemous fish they grow paynfull and swell the figure hereof I send you in colours they are com̄on about cromer see Schoneveldeus de Ophidiis.

Piscis octogonius or octangularis answering the discription of Cataphractus Schoneveldei [see Note 66] only his is discribed with the finnes spread & when it was fresh taken & a large one howeuer this may bee nostras I send you one butt I haue seen much larger which fishermen haue brought mee.

Physsalus [see Note 89]. I send one which hath been long opened & shrunck & lost the colour when I tooke it upon the sea shoare it was full & plump answering the figure & discription of Rondeletius. there is also a like figure at the end of [Rondeletius crossed out] muffetus I haue kept them aliue butt obserued no motion [butt crossed out] except of contraction and dilation when it is fresh the prickles or brisles are of a brisk green & Amethest colours—some call it a sea mous.

Our mullet is white & imberbis [see Note 63] butt wee haue also a mullis barbatus ruber miniaceus or cinnaberinus somewhat rough & butt drye meat. there is of them maior & minor resembling the figures in Johnstonus tab xvii Rotbart.

Of the Acus marinus or needle fishes [see Note 64] I haue obserued 3 sorts. The Acus Aristotelis called heere an Addercock Acus maior or Garfish with a green verdigris backbone the other saurus Acui similis Acus sauroides or sauriformis as it may be called much answering to the discription of saurus Rondeletij in the hinder part much resembling a makerell opening one I found not the backbone green Johnstonus writes nearest to it in his Acus minor. I send you the head of one dryed butt the bill is broken I haue the whole draught in picture. this kind is more rare then the other wch are com̄on & is a rounder fish.

[Fol. 41 verso.] Vermes marini are large wormes [see Note 91] found 2 foot deep in the sea sands & are digged out at an ebbe for bayt.

The Avicula Maialis or may chitt [see Note 29] is a litle dark gray bird somewhat bigger then a stint which com̄eth in may or the later end of April & stayeth about a moneth. A marsh bird the legges & feet black without an heele the bill black about 3 quarters of an inch long they grow very fatt & are accounted a dayntie dish.

A Dorhawke a bird not full so bigge as a pigeon [see Note 42] somewhat of a woodcock colour & paned somewhat like an hawke with a bill not much bigger then that of a Titmouse [& very wide throat added above] known by the name of a dorhawke or prayer upon beetles, as though it were some kind of accipiter muscarius. in brief this accipiter cantharophagus or dorhawke [a word smeared out] is Avis Rostratula gutturosa, quasi coaxans, scarabæis vescens, sub vesperam volans, ouum speciosissimū [word smeared] excludens. I haue had many of them & am sorry I have not one to send you I spoake to a friend to shoote one butt I doubt they are gone ouer.

of the vpupa [see Note 35] diuers have been brought mee & some I haue obserued in these parts as I trauuyled about.

The Aquila Gesneri I sent [aliue added above] to Dr. Scarburg [see Note 3] who told mee it was kept in the colledge it was brought mee out of Ireland. I kept it 2 yeares in my howse I am sorry I haue only one fether of it to send you.

A shooing horn or Barker from the figure of the bill & barking note [see Note 38] a long made bird of white & blakish colour finne footed, a marsh bird & not rare some times of the yeare in marshland. it may upon vewe bee called Recuruirostra nostras or Auoseta much resembling the Auosettæ [species crossed out] species in Johnstonus tab (54). I send you the head in picture

[A smeared out] stone curliews I haue kept in large cages [see Note 37] the[y] haue a prettie shrill note, not hard to bee got in some parts of norfolk.

[Fol. 42] Haue you Scorpius marinus Schoneueldei [see Note 68]

haue you putt in the musca Tuliparū muscata[108]

That bird which I sayd much answered the discription of Garrulus Argentoratensis [see Note 49] I send you it was shott on a tree x miles of 4 yeares ago. it may well bee called the Parret Jay or Garrulus psittacoides speciosus. the colours are much faded. if you haue it before I should bee content to haue it agayne otherwise you may please to keep it.

Garrulus Bohemicus[109] probably you haue a prettie handsome bird with the fine cinnaberin tipps of the wings some wch I haue seen heere haue the tayle tipt with yellowe wch is not in the discription.

I haue also sent you urtica mas [see Note 105] which I lately gathered at Golston by yarmouth where I found it to growe also 25 yeares ago. of the stella marina Testacea which I sent you [see Note 87] I do not find the figure in any booke.

I send you a few flies[110] which some unhealthful yeares about the first part of september I haue obserued so numerous upon plashes in the marshes & marish diches that in a small compasse it were no hard matter to gather a peck of them I brought some what my box would hold butt the greatest part are scatterd lost or giuen away for memorie sake I writ on my box muscæ palustres Autumnales [See Appendix D.]

worthy Sr I shall be euer redie to serue you who am Sr your humble Seruant

Tho Browne.

Norwich, Sep 16. 1668.

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No. IV.

"The fourth Letter to Dr. Merrett Decemb xxix." [1668]

[Fol. 42 verso.] Sr I am very joyfull that you haue recouered your health whereof I heartily wish the continuation for your own and the publick good. And I humbly thank you for the courteous present of your booke.[111] with much delight and satisfaction I had read the same not once in English I must needs acknowledge your com̄ent more acceptable to me then the text which I am sure is an hard obscure peice without it. though I haue not been a stranger unto the vitriarie Art both in England and abroad.

I perceiue you haue proceeded farre in your Pinax. These few at present I am bold to propose & hint unto you intending God willing to salute you agayne.

A paragraph might probably be annexed unto Quercus. Though wee haue not all the exotick oakes, nor their excretions yet these and probably more supercrescences productions or excretions may bee obserued in England.

• Viscum—polypodium—Juli pilulæ—
• Gemmæ foraminatæ [formicatæ?] foliorū—
• excrementū fungosum verticibus scatens—
• Excrementum Lanatum—
• Capitula squamosa jacææ æmula.
• Nodi—melleus Liquor—Tubera radicum
• vermibus scatentia—Muscus—Lichen—
• Fungus—varæ quercinæ.[112]

[Fol. 43.] Capillaris marina sparsa fucus capillaris marinus sparsus sive capillitius marinus or sea periwigge.[113] strings of this are often found on the sea shoare. but this is the full figure I haue seen 3 times as large.

I send you also [several words smeared out] a little elegant sea plant[114] which I pulled from a greater bush thereof which I haue resembling the back bone of a fish. Fucus marinus vertebratus pisciculi spinum referens Icthyorachius or what you thinck fitt.

And though perhaps it bee not worth the taking notice of formicæ arenariæ marinæ or at least muscus formicarius marinus[115] yet I obserue great numbers by the seashoare and at yarmouth an open sandy coast, in a sunny day many large and winged ones may bee obserued upon & rising out of the [shoare crossed out] wet sands when the tide falls away.

Notonecton an insect that swimmeth on its back [see Note 98] & mentioned by Muffettus may be obserued with us.

I send you a white Reed chock[116] by name some kind of Junco or litle sort thereof I haue had another very white when fresh.

Also the draught of a sea fowle called a sherewater [see Note 17] billed like a cormorant, feirce & snapping like it upon any touch. I kept 2 of them aliue 5 weekes cramming them with fish refusing of themselues to feed on anything & wearied with cramming them they liued 17 dayes without food. They often fly about fishing [ves crossed out] shipps when they cleans their fish & throwe away the offell. so that it may bee referred to the Lari as Larus niger gutture albido rostro adunco.

Gossander videtur esse puphini species [Pinax, p. 184]. worthy Sr that wch we call a gossander [see Note 19] & is no rare fowle among us is a large well colourd & marked diuing fowle most answering the [mer crossed out] Merganser. it may bee like the puffin in fattnesse and [Ranknesse crossed out] Ranknesse butt no fowle is I think like the puffin differenced from all others by a peculiar kind of bill

[Fol 43 verso.] Barganders [see Note 18] not so rare as Turn [Turner] makes them comm̄on in Norfolk so abounding in vast & spatious warrens.

If you haue not yet putt in Larus minor or a sterne [see Note 13] it would not bee omitted, comm̄on about broad waters and plashes not farre from the sea.

Haue you a Yarwhelp, Barker, or Latrator [see Note 39] a marsh bird about the bignesse of a Godwitt

Haue you Dentalia [see Note 83] which are small vniualue testacea whereof sometimes wee find some on the seashoare

Haue you putt in nerites another little Testaceum which wee haue [see Note 83].

Haue you an Apiaster a small bird calld a Beebird.[117]

Haue you morinellus marinus or the sea Dotterell better colourd then the other & somewhat lesse [see Note 28].

I send you a draught of 2 small birds the bigger called a Chipper or Betulæ Carptor [see Note 48] cropping the first sproutings of the Birch trees & comes early in the spring. The other a very small bird lesse than the certhya or ox eyecreeper called a whinne bird

I send you the draught of a fish taken sometimes in our seas [see Note 69]. pray compare it with Draco minor Johnstoni. this draught was taken from the fish dried & so the prickly finnes less discernible.

There is a very small kind of smelt [see Note 71] butt in shape & smell like the other taken in good plenty about [wh crossed out] Lynne & called Primmes.

Though Scombri Or Makerells [see Note 73] bee a com̄on fish yet [in crossed out] our seas afford sometimes strange & large ones as I haue heard from fishermen & others. & this yeare 1668 one was taken at Lestoffe an ell long by measure & presented to a Gentleman a friend of myne.

Musca Tuliparum moschata is a small beelike flye [see Note 108] of an excellent fragrant odour which I haue often found at the bottom of the flowers of Tuleps.

[Fol. 44.] In the little box I send a peece of vesicaria or seminaria marina [yo crossed out] cutt of from a good full one found on the sea shoare [see Note 91].

Wee haue [two or three words smeared out here] also an eiectment of the sea very com̄on which is fanago [see Note 91] whereof some very large.

I thank you for communicating the account of Thunder & lightening some strange effects thereof I haue found heere butt this last yeere wee had litle or no Thunder & lightening. [No signature.]

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No. V.

Dr. Browne To Merrett.

Honoured Sir

[Fol. 106.] I am sorry I have had [diuersions above] of such necessitie, as to hinder my more sudden salute since I receiued your last. I thank you for the sight of the Sperma Ceti, and such kind of effects from [Lightning & Thunder written above] I have known and about 4 yeares ago about this towne when I with many others saw fire-balls fly & go of when they met with resistance, and one carried away the tiles and boards of a leucomb Window of my owne howse, being higher then the neighbour howses & breaking agaynst it with a report like a good canon. I set downe that occurrence in this citty & country, & haue it somewhere [in crossed out] amongst my papers, and fragments of a woman's hat that was shiuered into pieces of the bignesse of a groat. I haue still by mee a little of the spermaceti of our whale, as also the oyle & balsome wch I made with the oyle & spermaceti. Our whale was worth 500 lib. my Apothecarie got about fiftie pounds in one sale of a quantitie of sperm [see Note 51].

I made enumeration of the excretions of the oake which might bee obserued in england [see Note 112], because I conceived they would bee most obseruable if you set them downe together, not minding whether there were any addition by excrementum fungosum vermiculis scatens I only meant an vsuall excretion, soft & fungous at first & pale & sometimes couered in part with a fresh red growing close vnto the sprouts. first full of maggots in little woodden cells which afterwards turne into little reddish browne or bay flies. of the tubera indica vermiculis scatentia I send you a peece, they are as bigg as good Tennis-balls & ligneous.

The little elegant fucus [see Note 114] may come in as a difference of the abies, being somewhat like it, as also unto the 4 corrallium in Gerard of the sprouts whereof I could never find any sprouts wings Or leaves as in the abies whether fallen of I knowe not, though I call'd it icthyorachius or pisciculi spinam referens yet pray do you call it how you please I send you now the figure of a quercus mar. [inus] or alga which I found by the seashoare differing from the com̄on [see Note 114] as being denticulated & in one place there seemes to bee the beginning of some flower pod or seedvessell.

[Fol. 106 verso.] A draught of the morinellus marinus or sea doterell I now send you. the bill should not have been so black & the leggs more red, [see Note 28] & [the crossed out] a greater eye of dark red in the feathers of wing and back: it is lesse & differently colourd from the com̄on dotterell, wch [wee haue crossed out] cometh to us about March & September. these sea-dotterells are often shot near the sea.

A yarewhelp or barker [some words smeared out] [see Note 39] a marsh-bird the bill 2 inches long the legges about that length the bird of a brown or russet colour.

That which is knowne by the name of a bee-bird [see Note 117] is a litle dark gray bird I hope to get one for you.

That whch I call'd a betulæ carptor & should rather have calld it Alni carptor [see Note 48] whereof I sent a rude draught. it feeds upon alder [budds mucaments or written above] seeds which grow plentifully heere & they fly in little flocks.

That [calld by some a written above] whin-bird is a kind of ox eye butt the shining yellow spot on the back of the head [see Note 48] is scarce to bee well imitated by a pensill.

I confess for such litle birds I am much unsatisfied on the names giuen to many by countrymen, and vncertaine what to giue them myself, or to what classes of authors cleerly to reduce them. surely there are many found among us whch are not described; & therefore such whch you cannot well reduce may (if at all) bee set downe after the exacter nomination of small birds as yet of uncertain classe or knowledge.

I present you with a draught of a water-fowl not com̄on & none of our fowlers can name it [see p. 79 infra] the bill could not bee exactly expressed by a coale or black chalk, whereby the litle incuruitie [at the end written above] of the upper bill & small recurvitie of the lower is not discerned. the wings are very short, & it is finne footed. the bill is strong & sharp, if you name it not I am uncertaine what to call it pray consider this Anatula or mergulus melanoleucus rostro acuto.

[Fol. 107.] I send you also the heads of mustela or mergus mustelaris mas. et fæmina [see Note 21] called a wesel from some resemblance in the head especially of the female wch is brown or russet not black & white like the male. & from their praying quality upon small fish. I have found small eeles small perches & small muscles in their stomacks. Have you a sea phaysant [see Note 22] so com̄only calld from resemblance of an hen phaisant in the head & eyes & spotted marks on the wings & back. & wth a small bluish flat bill, tayle longer than other ducks, long winges crossing over the tayle like those of a long winged hawke.

Have you taken notice of a breed of porci solidi pedes.[118] I first obserued them above xx yeares ago & they are still among us. [See also p. 80 infra.]

Our nerites or neritæ are litle ones [see Note 83].

I queried whether you had dentalia [see Note 83] becaus probably you might haue met with them in england. I neuer found any on our shoare butt one brought mee a few small ones with smooth with [sic] small shells from the shoare. I shall inquire further after them.

Urtica marina minor Johnst. tab. xviii. [see Note 90] haue found more than once by the sea side.

The hobby and the merlin would not bee omitted among hawkes the first coming to us in the spring the other about the autumn. Beside the ospray wee have a larger kind of agle, calld an erne [see Note 3]. I haue had many of them.

Worthy deare Sr, if I can do anything farther wch may bee seruiceable unto you you shall ever readily com̄and my endeauours; who am, Sr, Your humble & very respectfull seruant,

Tho. Browne.

Febr 6 [1668-9.]
Norwich.

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No. VI.

[MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. MS. SLOANE 1847, FOL. 198.]

Worthy Sr

[Fol. 198.] Though I writ vnto you last monday. yet hauing omitted some few things wch I thought to have mentioned I am bold to giue you this trouble so soone agayne haue you putt in a sea fish calld a bleak [see Note 74] a fish like an herring often taken with us and eat butt a more lanck & thinne & drye fish.

The wild swanne or elk [see Note 8] would not bee omitted, [here crossed out] being com̄on in hard winters & differenced from [the crossed out] our River swanns by the Aspera Arteria. [See also pp. 80 and 83 infra.]

Fulica and cotta Anglorum [see Note 23] are different birds though good resemblance between them, so some doubt may bee made whether it bee to bee made a coote except you set it downe fulica nostras. & cotta Anglorum I pray consider whether that waterbird whose draught I sent in the last box & thought it might bee named Anatula or mergulus melanoleucos may not bee some gallinula. it hath some resemblance with gallina hypoleucos of Johnst Tab 32 [31] butt myne hath shorter wings by much & the bill not so long [Fol. 198 verso] & slender & shorter leggs & lesser & so may ether be calld gallina Aquatica hypoleucos nostras or hypoleucos or melanoleucos Anatula or mergulus nostras.[119]

Tis much there should be no Icon of Rallus or Ralla Aquatica I haue a draught of one & they are found among us

Feb xii    1668.

The vesicaria I sent is like that you mention [see Note 91] if not the same the com̄on fanago resembleth the husk of peas this of [Part crossed out] Barly when the flower is mouldred away. [See also p. 89 infra, where Merrett aptly compares the latter to the flowers of the Grape Hyacinth.]

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No. VII.

[BIBLIOTHECA BODLEIANA. MS. RAWLINSON D. cviii. SR THO BROWN TO DR. MERRETT.]

[Fol. 105.] Sr I craue your pardon for this delayed returne unto your last, whose courteus acceptance & worthy entertaynment [?] deserued [a speed blotted out] even a speedier reply. The small plant may fitly come in among the corallines upon the [diff crossed out] account of articulation Icthyorachius [see Note 114] I think will bee a good Diference [?]. whether you will subexpand [?] the word I referre it to yourself. certhia may best bee vertice aureo [word blotted out] or vertice aureo penicello vix imitando. morinellus marinus [see Note 28] I think rather then Aquaticus becuse it is seen most about the sea coast. Anas alis oculatis[120] rather then Anser for it is not altogether so longe as a wild duck. of porci solidipedes [see Note 118] there are still in this country in some places. and I am promised a pigge by a Gentleman that hath still a boar and sow of that kind. I tooke notice of them 26 years ago & having not lately [met with crossed out] met with any thought the race had been worne out butt I perceue it is not—they are whole footed in the forfeet & have [only crossed out] a seame only in the hinder. so they are animalia duplici nomine im̄unda. The wild swans or elk [see Note 8] in [very crossed out] lasting cold winters are most plentifull. It is larger then the River swan somewhat gray & of a lowder note & [differenced call crossed out] a recuruation of the Aspera arteria in the sternon as I noted in the margin long agoe in vulgar errors. the blicca marina [see Note 74] may well be named Harengiformis. [several words smeared out] I have the draught of that an Herring & a pilcher in one paper upon that account [Fol. 104 verso] I belieue [?] you were well informd of the cotta [see p. 79] & fulica of our Ralla Aquatica I enclose a draught.

Of porci solidipedes there are diuers still in the country in some places I am promised a pigge by a friend who cherisheth that [new crossed out] breed. I tooke notice of them 26 yeares ago, & hauing not lately minded them thought they had been worn out butt I perceiue they are not—some are more plainly wholefooted then others & especially in the fore feet & in the rest there is no thorough fissure butt at most a superficiall seame, so they are [No. 3 cap 27 above] Quadrupedia duplici nomine im̄unda.

[This last paragraph seems to have been written by way of emendation of what appears above on the same subject. A photograph of a portion of the above letter will, by the courtesy of the Bodleian Librarian, be found as a frontispiece to this volume. Mr. Jenkinson, the Librarian of the University of Cambridge, and through him, Mr. G. F. Warner and Mr. Kenyon, of the Department of Manuscripts of the British Museum, have kindly interested themselves in the transcript of this letter, which was very difficult to decipher.]

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No. VIII.

BIBLIOTHECA BODLEIANA (MS. RAWL. D. cviii.)

[Fol 58.] Honord Sr I humbly thank you for your care of my sonnes paper & the Royll Societie for their acceptance of it. If hee bee in health I knowe hee is mindfull of their com̄ands receiued aboue 2 months ago by a letter from Mr. Oldenburg.[121] I haue not heard from him of late the last I receiued was from Komorn[R] in Lower Hungary and hee was then going to the mine countryes. I think the Rowd may bee calld Rutilus ventre magis compresso[122] w^ch is the first discoverable difference to the eye. The weazelling [see Note 60] is as you see in the draught a long fish figura ad teretem vergente. somewhat of the shape butt differing in the head from the mustela viuipara of Schoneueld. butt not lozenged on the back though the back bee much darker then the other parts. I send you the figure of the head of a cristated wild duck. it is black blackish [sic] in the greater part of the body some white on the brest & wings blewish legges & bill & seems to bee of the Latirostrous tribe perhaps you haue it not. it may bee called Anas macrolophos [Fol. 59] as excelling in that kind.[123] there is also a draught of one sort of mergus cristatus resembling that of Aldrovandus or Johnstonus where there is only the figure of the head only this is also ruffus butt the head sad red.[124] wee haue a kind of teale which some fowlers call crackling teale from the noyse it maketh[125] it is almost of the bignesse of a duck coming late of the yeare & latest going away hath a russet head & neck with a dark yellow stroak about a quarter of an inch broad from the crowne to the bill winged like a teale a white streake through the middle of the wings and edges thereof the tale blackish. it may be calld Querquedula maior serotina. I send you the figure in litle of a pristis[126] w^ch I receaued from a yarmouth seaman. you may please to compare it w^th yours. the asper you mention is much like our Rough or Aspredo.

I forgot in my last to signifie that an oter [an other?] Elk or wild swan was headed like a goose that is without any knobb at the bottome of the bill. [See p. 80 and Note 8.]

Haue you had the duck called Clangula in Ald. [drovandus] & Johnst.[127] wee haue one heere w^ch answereth their descriptions exactly butt [i.e., except] only in the colour of their leggs & feet.

Haue you a willock a sea fowl like a rook or crowe.[128]

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No. IX.

[MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. MS. SLOANE 1847, FOL. 182.]

[Fol. 182.] Sr I craue your pardon that I haue no sooner sent unto you. I shall be very reddie to do you service in order to your desires And shall endeavour to procure you such animalls as I haue formerly met with & any other not ordinary wch [shall crossed out] are to bee acquired. though many of my old assistants are dead. & sometimes they fell upon animalls, [not to bee crossed out] scarce to bee met with agayne. I wish I had been acquainted with your desires 3 yeares ago. for I had about fortie hanging up in my howse. wch the plague being at the next doores the person intrusted in my howse, burnt or threw away. The figure of the weasell Cray [see Note 60 and p. 82] was in a long paper pasted together at the ends & I make no question you will find it otherwise I would send another [the willick wee in crossed out] that fowl wch some call willick, [see Note 128] wee meet with sometimes. The last I met with was taken on the sea shoare. the head and body black the brest inclining to black headed and billd like a crowe, leggs set very backward wings short leggs set very backward (sic) that it move overland very badly only. it may bee a kind of cornix marina. [The latter portion very badly written and difficult to decipher.]

[Fol. 184 verso.] That litle plant upon oyster shells [see Note 91] I remember I haue seen & surely is some kind of vescaria or calicularia

of what that other [was crossed out] electricall body was Mr. Boyle[129] showed [smear] by this time more tryall hath probably been made, something of jet it might consist of.

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I thank you that you were pleased to enquire of those German gentlemen concerning my sonne I receiued a letter lately from him he hath not been unmindfull of the R. Society's com̄ds & hath been in Hungaria in the mines of Gold, sylver & copper at Schemets, Cremitz & Neusol & desired mee to signifie so much to Mr. Oldenberg.

[The above is hastily scrawled; it was evidently indited to Merrett, as indicated by the reference to the German gentlemen, &c.; the date would therefore be some time in the year 1669. Wilkin prints it in the 1836 Edition, Vol. i., p. 408, but it is not in Bohn's reprint.]

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[Reply to No. 2 in the above Series.]

[Fol. 3.] Worthy Sr,—y^rs of y^e 14^th instant I recaeved as full off learning in discovering so many very great curiosities as kindness in communicating them to mee & promising y^r farther assistance. ffor which I shall always proclame by my tongue as well as by my pen, my due resentment & thanks.

The 2 funguses [guses crossed out and i inserted] y^w sent y^e figures off [see Note 106] are y^e finest & rarest as to their figure I have ever seen or read of, & soe is y^r fibula marina, far surpassing one I reacived from Cornwall much of y^e same bigness, neither of which I find anywhere mentioned. The urtica marina minor Jonst. & physalus I never met with, nor have bin informed off y^e canis charcharius alius Jonst. Many of y^e Lupus piscis I have seen, & have bin informed by y^e Kings fish monger they are taken on our coast, but was not satisfyed for some reasons off his relation soe as to enter it into my pinax, though tis said to bee peculiar to y^e river Albis [= Elbe] yet I thought they might come sometimes thence to y^r coasts. Trutta marina I haue and y^e loligo, sepia, & polypus y^e 3 sorts off y^e molles have bin found on our western coasts which shall bee exactly distinguished—As for y^e Salmons taken a bove London towards Richmond & nearer, & y^t in great quantity some years they have all off them their lower jaw as y^w observ, [see Note 92] & our fishermen [men crossed out] say they usually wear off some part off it on y^e banks or els y^e lower would grow into y^e upper & soe starve them as they have sometimes seen—y^w ask whether I haue y^e mullus ruber asper, or y^e piscis Octangularis Wormii. or y^e sea worm longer than y^e earth worms, or y^e garrulus Argentor. or y^e duck cal'd a May chit or y^e Dor hawke. The 4 first I haue noe account off y^e 2 later I know not especially by those names, wee have noe hawk by y^t name [see Note 42] y^r account of succinum as all y^e rest will bee registered. As for y^e Aquila Gesneri I never saw nor heard off any such in y^e Collidge for [fol. 3 verso] this 25 years last past. Sr y^w are pleased to say y^w shall write more if y^w know how not to bee surpurfluous—certainly what y^w have hitherto done hath bin all curiosities, & I doubt not but y^w have many more by you—I can direct y^w noe further than y^r own reason dictates to y^w. Besides those mentioned in y^e pinax I have 100 to add, & cannot give y^w a particular off them—whatever y^w write is either confirmative or additional. I doe entreat this favour off y^w to inform mee fuller off those unknown things mentioned herein, & to add y^e name page &c. of y^e Author if mentioned by any or else to give them such a latin name for them as y^w have done by y^e fungi which may bee descriptive & differencing off them. Sr I hope y^e publigs [sic] interest & y^r own good genius will plead y^r pardon desired by

y^r humble servant

Chr. Merrett.

London Aug. 29. 68.

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[Reply to No. 8 of the above Series.]

[Fol. 1.] Worthy Sr,—my due thanks premised I at present acquaint y^w y^t y^w have very well named y^e Rutilus & expressed fully y^e cours to bee taken in y^e imposition of names viz y^e most obvious & most peculiar difference to y^e ey or any other sens. I am farther to say y^t y^e icon of y^e weazeling came not to my hands, pray bee pleas'd to look amongst y^r papers perhaps it might bee laid by through some accident or other [I have added above] y^e figures of y^r anas macrolophos, & of y^e mergi cristati [see Note 124] & of y^e pristis y^t which came from Cornwall was of y^e gladius, y^e name of sword fish being applied to both of them by our nation. It seemeth by y^w y^t y^e Norwich aspredo is not y^e Ceruna fluviatilis contrary to what Camden affirms, for y^e rutilus mentioned in mine to y^w differs toto cœlo from y^e ceruna—The difference of y^e Elks bill by y^w signified is remarkable to distinguish it from others of its own kind. [See p. 83 supra.] The crackling teal seems [clearly crossed out] to bee y^e same which Dr Charleton[130] mentions in his Onomasticon under y^e name of y^e cracker,& showing him y^r description hee acknowledged to bee y^e same, y^e clangula I know noe more of than reading hath informed mee, a willock I have seen brought from Greenland where they are said exceedingly to abound, but never y^t [thought?] either of them was found in England, & having [not added above] taken sufficient notice of it y^e later, crave y^r description off both.

And now Sr since my last only 2 things remarkable haue come to my knowledge. The one was a cake off black amber 1/6 off an inch thick & neer a palm each way. Mr. Boyle brought it to y^e R. society to whom it was sent from y^e Sussex shore, hee had only tryed it to its electricity & found it answer his expectation, farther tryals will be made of it. The second is a small plant found on oyster shells which when fresh did perfectly represent y^e flowers off Hyacinthus botryoides, [see Note 91] but y^t was somewhat longer & not so much sweld out towards its pedunculus, some of them are here inclosed. Tis doubtless a sort off vesicaria, though much different from what y^w sent mee. Most off them are now shrunk & y^e sides constituting y^e cavity come together & appear only a transparent husk. One thing more I had to add (but scarcely dare speak it out) y^t is if it would please [you added above] to let it bee done without y^r charge & 2ly if it might be done without y^r trouble, then I would beg off y^w to set some a work to procure mee some of those rare animals &c. y^w have mentioned in your seueral Letters. My intention therein is double: first to take their descriptions & furnish our colledge with them as curiosities, all being lost by y^e fire this is onely wished but must not bee proposed without y^e former limitation by y^r too much allready obliged friend & servant

Chr. Merrett.

8th May '69.

I met this week with some persons off quality high Germans who lately saw y^r son & record all good things off him.

ffor Dr Browne off Norwich.

[The reply to this letter is No. IX of the above Series.]

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[MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. MS. SLOANE 1847, FOL. 56-57.]

[See Note 51, p. 32 supra.]

Praye Request Mr. Johnson to obtayne this fauor of Mr. Bacon who is unknown to mee, to afford mee his resolution to these few queries concerning the whale [wch crossed out] whereof I understand he had the cutting up and disposure whether there were any spermacetie found, or made out of other parts beside the head; if soe, of what parts & out of what most: and whether any out of the meere fleshie parts whether that wch runne from it about the shoare came out of the mouth.

[Not signed or dated.]

REPLY.

Sr in Answer to your questions conserninge the whale, I founde noe Sperm̄e but in his heade and that after I had taken off his scalpe one tonn weight [or more written above] of a nexuous substance, we found in the circumference as large as a small coach wheele in the middle part certain round pieces of Sperm as bigge as a mans fist some as large as eggs and on the out side of the said rounds, flakes as large as a mans head in forme like hony combs being very white and full of oyle. And that Sp. wch was cast upon the shore I doe conceive came out of his nostrells. thus much ffrom him who doth remayne Sir your humble Servant, Arthur Bacon Yarmouth 10th May 1652.

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Browne to Dugdale on certain fossil bones.

["Eastern Counties Collectanea," pp. 193-195].

[p. 193.] "Sr I cannot sufficiently admire the ingenious industry of Sr Robert Cotton in preserving so many things of rarity and observation nor commend your own enquiries for the satisfaction of such particulars. The petrified bone you sent me, which with divers others was found underground, near Cunnington, seems to be the vertebra, spondyle or rackbone of some large fish, and no terrestrious animal as some upon sight conceived, as either of Camel, rhinoceros, or elephant, for it is not perforated and hollow but solid according to the spine of fishes in whom the spinal marrow runs in a channel above these solid racks, or spondiles.

"It seems much too big for the largest Dolphins, porpoises, or sword fishes, and too little for a true or grown whale, but may be the bone of some big cetaceous animal, as particularly of that which seamen call a Grampus; a kind of small whale, whereof some come short, some exceed twenty foot. And not only whales but Grampusses have been taken in this Estuarie or mouth of the fenland rivers. And about twenty years ago four were run ashore near Hunstanton and two had young ones after they came to land. But whether this fish were of the longitude of twenty foot (as is conceived) some doubt may be made for this bone containeth little more than an inch in thickness, and not three inches in breadth so that it might have a greater number thereof than is easily allowable to make out that longitude. For of the whale which was cast upon our coast about six years ago a vertebra or rackbone still preserved, containeth a foot in breadth and nine inches in depth, yet the whale with all advantages but sixty-two foot in length. [p, 194.] We are not ready to believe that, wherever such relics of fish or sea animals are found, the sea hath had its course. And Goropius Becanus[131] long ago could not digest that conceit when he found great numbers of shells upon the highest Alps. For many may be brought unto places where they were not first found.

"Some bones of our whale were left in several fields which when the earth hath obscured them, may deceive some hereafter, that the sea hath come so high. In northern nations where men live in houses of fishbones and in the land of the Icthiophagi near the Red sea where mortars were made of the backbones of whales, doors of their jaws, and arches of their ribs, when time hath covered them they might confound after discoverers.…

"For many years great doubt was made concerning those large bones found in some parts of England, and named Giants' bones till men [p. 195] considered they might be the bones of elephants brought into this island by Claudius, and perhaps also by some succeeding emperors [then follow other ancient examples of the finding 'elephants bones' in various countries attributed to similar modes of introduction]. But many things prove obscure in subterraneous discovery.…

"In some chalk pits about Norwich many stag's horns are found of large beams and branches, the solid parts converted into a chalky and fragile substance, the pithy part sometimes hollow and full of brittle earth and clay. In a churchyard of this city an oaken billet was found in a coffin. About five years ago an humourous man of this country after his death and according to his own desire was wrap't up in a horned hide of an ox and so buried.[T] Now when the memory hereof is past how this may hereafter confound the discoverers and what connjectures will arise thereof it is not easy to conjecture.

Sr Your servant to my power,

Tho. Browne.

This is endorsed "Sr Thomas Browne's discourse about the Fish bone found at Conington Com. Hunt, Shown, Dr. Tanner."

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[SLOANE MS. ADDITIONAL 5233, LARGE FOLIO, IS A VOLUME LABELLED "DR. EDW. BROWN'S DRAWINGS."]

The above is the inscription written on the fly-leaf of this volume, which I hoped might have contained some drawings of birds or fishes by Sir Thomas Browne, but there is nothing in it of interest from a Natural History point of view. In Wilkin's Catalogue of the MSS. (Vol. iv., p. 476) it is described as "a collection of very curious drawings (some coloured) of public buildings, habits, fishes, mines, rocks, tombs, and other antiquities, observed by Sir Thos. and Dr. Edward Browne in their travels," but there are no fishes, birds, or other animals in the volume.

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[Fol. 70.] This is a picture of the stork [see Note 14] I mentiond in my last. butt it is different from the com̄on stork by red lead colourd leggs and bill[132] and the feet hath not vsuall sharp poynted clawes butt resembling a mans nayle, such as Herodotus discribeth the white Ibis of Ægypt to haue. The ends of the wings are black & when shee doth not spred them they make all the lower part of the back looke black, butt the fethers on the back vnder them are white as also the tayle. it fed upon snayles & froggs butt a toad being offered it would not touch it. the tongue is about half an inch long. the quills of the wing are as bigge or bigger then a swans quills. it was shott by the seaside & the wing broake. Some there were who tooke it for an euell omen saying If storks come ouer into England, god send that a com̄onwealth doth not come after.[U]

That picture with the lesser head is the better.

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MS. RAWL. D. cviii.

[Fol. 77.] A kind of stork was shott in the wing by the sea neere Hasburrowe & brought aliue vnto mee. it was about a yard high red lead coloard leggs and bill. the clawes resembling human nayles such as Herodotus describeth in the white Ibis of Ægypt The lower parts of the wings are black which gathered up makes the lower part of back looke black butt the tayle vnder them is white as the other part of the body. it fed readily upon snayles & froggs, butt a toad being offered it would not touch it: the tongue very short [not crossed out] an inch long. it makes a clattering noyse by flapping one bill agaynst the other somewhat like the platea or shouelard.[V] the quills [about crossed out] of the biggnesse of swans bills [sic quills?] when it swallowed a frogge it was sent downe into the stomak by the back side of the neck as was perceaued upon swallowing. I could not butt take notice of the conceitt of some who looked upon it as an ill omen saying if storks come ouer into England, pray god a com̄on wealth do not come after.

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A.

• Acorus verus, 58
• Acus, Needlefish, 40, 41, 66
• Adders, 55
• Addercock, 66
• Alcedo ispida, 21
• Allis Shad, 42 (note)
• Alni carptor, 76
• Amber, 63, 88
• Alosa, 42
• Anas arctica, 17, 73
• Anas macrolophos, 82, 88
• Anas alis oculatis, 80
• Anatula, 76, 79
• Anglorum, Sand Eel, 44
• Apiaster, 73
• Aphia cobites, 42
• Appendix A., 86
• Appendix B., 90
• Appendix C., 95
• Appendix D., 96
• Aquila Gesneri, 3, 67, 87
• Ardea stellaris, 17
• Arcuata, 23
• Armed Bull-head, 41 (note), 62, 65, 87
• Avicula Maialis, 19, 66
• Ascidians, 50 (note)
• Aselli, 43
• Asprage, 45
• Aspredo, 53, 83, 88
• Astacus, 46, 57
• Atherine?, 42 (note), 73
• Auk, Little?, 79 (note)
• Avis pugnax, 20
• Avis trogloditica, 26
• Avocet, 24, 67

B.

• Balani, 48
• Banstickle, 44
• Barbel, 53
• Barker, 24, 67, 73, 76
• Barnacle shell, 48
• Barnacle Goose, 12
• Bargander, 13, 73
• Bass, 43
• Bearded Tit, 26 (note)
• Bee-bird, 73, 76
• Betulæ Carptor, 29, 73, 76
• Birdcatcher, 25
• Birds found in Norfolk, 1
• Birds number of species, 32
• Bittern, 17
• Black Grouse, 28
• Black Heron, 21
• Black-tailed Godwit, 24 (note)
• Bleak, 43, 53, 78, 81
• Bones, Fossil, 91
• Boyle, Robert, 85
• Bream, 52
• Brent Goose, 12
• Brill, Bret, 45
• Brittle Stars, 49
• Browne, Sir Thomas—
  • Attitude towards witchcraft, xi. (note)
  • Collection of Eggs, 10 (note)
  • Correspondents, viii.
  • Drawings lost, xxv.
  • Editions of his Collected Works, xviii.
  • Estimation in which he was held, xvii.
  • Letters to Merrett, xxii., 57
  • Letters to Dugdale, 91
  • Notes on Certain Birds, xx., 1
  • Notes on Certain Fishes, xx., 31
  • Observations on Migration, xvi., 2 (note)
  • Originality, xi., xvi.
  • Purpose for which written, xxi., 2
  • State of Natural Science in his day, x., xiv.
• Bull-head, Armed, 41 (note), 62, 65, 87
• Burbot, 54
• Bustard, 18
• Butcher bird, 25
• Butt, 45
• Buzzard, Bald, 4, 56
• Buzzard, Gray, 4

C.

• Canis (Dog-fish), 36
• Canis carcharias, 37 (note), 61, 86
• Caprimulgus, 26, 63, 66, 87
• Cancellus, 48, 62
• Carcinus mænas, 46
• Carp, 55
• Certhia, 80
• Ceruna, 53, 88
• Chad, 42
• Chipper, 29, 73
• Chock, 26
• Chough, 27
• Chub, 53
• Churre, 19 (note), 20
• Ciconia, 10, 64, 96
• Cirripeds, 48
• Clams, 47
• Clangula, 83, 88
• Coal-fish, 43
• Coble bird, 25
• Cockles, 47
• Cods, 43
• Conger, 44
• Coot, 15
• Corculum, 55, 56
• Cormorant, 11
• Cormorant, Rock, 11
• Corallines, 80
• Cotta Anglorum, 79, 81
• Cottus scorpius, 42
• Corvus marinus, 11
• Crabs, 46
• Crane, 5
• Crawfish, 53
• Crossbill, 25
• Crow, 27
• Crow, Hooded, 25
• Cuckoo, 20
• Cuckoo Mate, 22 (note)
• Culex marinus, 99
• Curlew, 23
• Curlew, Stone, 24
• Cuttle fish, 45, 62
• Cyclas, 55 (note)

D.

• Dab, 45 (note)
• Dabchick, 13
• Dace, 52
• Dentalia, 47, 73, 77
• Divers, 8 (note)
• Dog-fish, 37
• Dog-Whelk, 47 (note)
• Dolphin, 34
• Dorhawk, 26, 63, 66, 87
• Dory, 41
• Dotterel, Land, 19
• Dotterel, Sea, 19, 73, 76, 80
• Draco minor, 42 (note), 73
• Dragon fly, 55 (note)
• Draw Water, 28
• Ducks, Wild, 13, 13 (note), 88
• Duck, Golden-eye, 83
• Duck, Tufted, 82
• Dunlin, 19

E.

• Eagles, 3, 67, 78, 87
• Echinus, 48
• Eels, 54
• Eels, Conger, 44
• Eels, Sand, 44
• Eelpout, 54
• Elke, 7, 78, 80, 83, 88
• Erythropus, 19

F.

• Faber marinus, 41
• Fanago, 51, 74
• Father Lasher, 42 (note)
• Fen Cricket, 55 (note), 56
• Fibula marina, 50, 61, 86
• Finches, 29
• Fishing Frog, 38, 64
• Fishes found in Norfolk, 31
• Fishes number of species, 32
• Flat-fish, 45
• Flies, 67, 71, 97
• Fly-catcher, 73 (note), 76
• Forficula, 55 (note), 56
• Fucus marinus, 71, 75
• Fulica Cotta, 14
• Fungi, various, 60, 61, 86
• Funduli fluviatiles, 54
• Funduli marini, 42

G.

• Gallinula aquatica, 15
• Gannet, 7, 13
• Gammarus, 53
• Garfish, 40, 66
• Garrulus Bohemicus, 68
• Garrulus Argentoratensis, 30, 63, 67, 87
• Geese, 12, 13
• Gladius, 36, 64, 88
• Glot, Eel, 54
• Gnatts or Knots, 19
• Goatsucker, 26, 63, 66, 87
• Gobies, 42 (note)
• Godwit, 19, 24
• Gold-crested Wren, 29 (note), 76
• Golden Eagle, 3 (note), 67
• Golden-eye Duck, 84 (note), 88
• Goldfinch, 29
• Goosander, 13, 72, 83 (note)
• Goodyer, John, 59
• Grampus, 33, 92
• Great Northern Diver, 8
• Green Plover, 19 (note), 20
• Grey Plover, 20
• Grebe, G. Crested, 13
• Grebe, Little, 13
• Grouse, Black, 28
• Gryllotalpa, 55 (note), 56
• Gudgeon, 54
• Guillemot, 84 (note), 88
• Gulls, 8, 9, 10
• Gurnards, 39
• Gurney, Anna, xx.

H.

• Haddock, 43
• Hard-worm, 55, 56
• Harriers, 4, 5 (note)
• Hawfinch, 25
• Hermit Crabs, 48
• Herons, 17
• Heron, Black, 22
• Heron, Purple, 22 (note)
• Heathpoult, 28
• Herring, 39
• Hippolyte varians, 53
• Hirundo marina, Sea Swallow, 10
• Hirudines marini, Sea Leeches, 50
• Horse-leeches, 55 (note), 56
• Horse Mackerel, 39
• Hobby, 78
• Hobby-bird, 22
• Hoopoe, 23, 67
• Hooded Crow, 26
• How, Dr. William, 59 (note)
• Hydrocantharus, 55 (note), 56
• Hydrozoa, 70

J.

• Jackdaw, 27
• Jelly-fish, 50, 61, 78
• Jet, 63 (note), 64, 85
• Junco, 72

K.

• Kingfisher, 22
• Kite, 4, 15, 27
• Knots, 19

L.

• Lampern, 54
• Lamprey, 54
• Lanius, 25
• Lapwing, 20
• Lari, many sorts of, 8, 9
• Larks, 28
• Larus minor, 9, 73
• Leeches, 50
• Lesser Butcher Bird, 26 (note)
• Letters to Dugdale, 91
• Letters to Merrett, 57
• Letters from Merrett, 86
• Limpets, 47
• Lingula, 45
• Little Auk?, 79 (note)
• Littorina, 47
• Lizard, 55
• Loach, 54
• Lobster, 46
• Lolego, 46, 62, 86
• Loon, 13
• Loxia, 25
• Lug Worm, 50 (note)
• Lump-fish, 39
• Lupus marinus, 38, 61, 86

M.

• Mackerel, 43, 74
• Mackerel, Horse, 39
• Marine Worms, 50
• May-chit, 19, 63, 66, 87
• Medusae, 49 (note)
• Merganser, 13, 72
• Mergus acutirostris, 13
• Mergus cristatus, 82, 88
• Mergus major, 8, 57
• Mergus minor, 13
• Mergus mustelaris, 77
• Mergus serratus, 18, 83
• Mergulus, 77, 79
• Merlin, 78
• Merrett, Christopher, xxii., 57
• Mistletoe, 70
• Migration, xvi., 2 (note)
• Miller's Thumb, 54
• Minnow, 53
• Mole Cricket, 55 (note), 56
• Moon-fish (Mola), 38, 64
• Moor Hen, 15
• Morinellus, 19, 73, 76, 80
• Musca tuliparum, 67, 74
• Mullet, 40, 65
• Mullet, Red, 40, 62, 65, 87
• Mussels, 47
• Musk Beetle, 58
• Mustela fluviatilis, 54
• Mustela marina, 39
• Mustela variegata, 14

N.

• Needle-fish, 40 (note), 41, 66
• Nerites, 47, 73, 77
• Night-jar, 26, 63, 66, 87
• Norway Lobster, 46 (note)
• Notonacton, 55 (note), 56, 71
• Nuthatch, 21

O.

• Oak Galls, 69, 70, 75
• Octopus?, 46 (note), 86
• Oldenburg, Henry, 82
• Onocrotalus, 16, 64
• Ophidian, 65
• Osprey, 4, 78
• Otters, 56
• Oysters, 46
• Oyster Catcher, 8 (note)

P.

• Parrot Jay, 30, 63, 67, 87
• Partridge, 27
• Partridge, Red-legged, 28
• Pectines, 47
• Pediculus marinus, 49
• Pelican, 16, 64
• Perch, 52
• Periwinkle, 47, 55 (note), 56
• Peter-fish, 41
• Physalus, 49, 65
• Pica marina, 8
• Picus martius, 21
• Pigs, Solid-footed, 77, 80, 81
• Pike, 52
• Pilchard, 44, 81
• Pinax, 57, 87
• Pintail Duck, 14, 77, 80
• Piscis octangularis, 41, 62, 65, 87
• Pisidium?, 55 (note)
• Place, 45
• Plot, Dr. Robert, xxiv. (note)
• Plover, Green, 19 (note), 20
• Plover, Grey, 20
• Plover, Ring, 23
• Pogge, 41 (note)
• Polypus, 46, 86
• Porbeagle, 57 (note), 61, 86
• Porpoise, 34
• Porci solidi pedes, 77, 80, 81
• Primmes, 42, 73
• Pristis serra, 36, 83, 88
• Puets, 10
• Puffin, 17, 73
• Pungitius, 44, 58

Q.

• Quail, 28
• Quercus Galls, 69, 70
• Quercus marinus, 75
• Querquedula, 14, 83

R.

• Rail, Land, 28
• Rail, Water, 15, 79, 81
• Rana piscatrix, 38, 64
• Raven, 27
• Rays, 45
• Razor shells, 47
• Red-backed Shrike, 25 (note)
• Red-legged Partridge, 28
• Red Mullet, 40, 62, 65, 87
• Redshank, 19
• Reed-chock, 72
• Reseda, 59
• Ringlestones, 23
• Ring Plover, 23
• Roach, 52
• Rochet, 39
• Rock Cormorant, 11
• Rockling, 39 (note)
• Roller, 30, 63, 67, 87
• Roman Nettle, 59, 68
• Rook, 27
• Rudd, Roud, 52, 82
• Ruff (fish), 53, 83, 88
• Ruff (Reeve), 20
• Rubelliones, 39
• Rutilus, 82, 88

S.

• Salmon, 51, 62, 87
• Sand Eel, 44
• Sanderling, 19 (note), 63, 66, 87
• Saurus, 40, 66
• Sawfish, 36, 83, 88
• Sandpiper, Common, 79
• Scad, 39
• Scallop, 47
• Scarabæus, 58
• Scarburgh, Sir C., 3 (note)
• Scolopax, 41
• Scolopendra, 35
• Scombri, 43, 74
• Scorpius, 42, 67
• Scotch Goose, 12
• Sea Buttons, 50, 61
• Sea Dotterel, 19, 73, 76, 80
• Sea Dugge, 50 (note), 51
• Sea Gudgeon, 42
• Sea Leach, 50
• Sea Loach, 42
• Sea Louse, 49
• Sea Miller's Thumb, 42
• Sea Mouse, 49, 65
• Sea Perriwig, 70
• Sea Pheasant, 14, 77
• Sea Pie, 8
• Sea Stars, 49, 57
• Sea Trout, 62, 86
• Sea Wolf, 38, 61, 86
• Sea Woodcock, 40
• Seal, 35, 64
• Seaweeds, 70
• Sepia, 45, 86
• Sesamoides, 59
• Shad, 42 (note)
• Shag, 11
• Shagreen Ray, 45
• Shearwater, 12, 72
• Sheld-drake, 12 (note), 13, 73
• Shoeing-horn, 24
• Shore Crab, 46 (note)
• Shovelard, 10
• Shoveller Duck, 14
• Shrike, 25
• Shrimp, Freshwater, 55 (note)
• Silerella, 26 (note)
• Siskin, 29 (note), 73, 76
• Skate, 45
• Skipper (Saury), 40 (note)
• Skua, 8, 58
• Smelt, 42
• Smew, 14, 77
• Snakes, 55
• Sole, 45
• Solens, 47
• Solid-footed Swine, 77, 80, 81
• Sperm Whale, 32, 65, 75, 80, 91, 98
• Spermologous, 27
• Spoonbill, 10
• Sported Flycatcher, 73, 76
• Sported Ray, 45
• Sprat, 43
• Squalders, 49, 50 (note), 61
• Squid, 45 (note)
• Squllæ, 56
• Starling, 28
• Stella marina, 49, 57
• Stern, 10, 73
• Sting-fish, 42, 65
• Sting Ray, 45
• Stint, 19 (note), 20
• Stickleback, 44 (note), 58
• Stone Curlew, 24, 67
• Stork, 10, 64, 96
• Sturgeon, 37
• Succinum, 63
• Sun-fish, 38, 64
• Surmullet, 40
• Swan, Wild, 7, 78, 80, 83, 88
• Sweet Flag, 57
• Swift, 55
• Sword Fish, 36, 64, 88

T.

• Teal, 14, 83, 88
• Tench, 52
• Tenison, Archbishop, ix.
• Terns, 10, 73
• Tethya, 50 (note), 51
• Thornback, 45
• Tope, 37 (note)
• Trachurus, 39, 58
• Trout, 53
• Trout, Sea, 66, 82
• Tufted Duck, 82
• Tunny?, 43 (note), 74
• Turbines, 47
• Turbot, 45

U.

• Upupa, 23, 67
• Urtica marina, 49, 61, 78, 86
• Urtica mas, 68
• Urtica pilulifera, 59 (note)
• Urtica Romana, 59

V.

• Vermes marinus, 50, 62, 66, 87
• Vermes setacei, 56
• Vesicaria, 50 (note), 51, 74, 79, 85, 89
• Vipers, 55
• Vitulus marinus, 35, 64

W.

• Water Beetle, 55 (note), 56
• Water Boatman, 55 (note), 56
• Water Hen, 15
• Water Rail, 15, 79, 81
• Waxwing, 68
• Weasel Cray, 84
• Weasel ling, 39, 82, 88
• Weever-fish, 42 (note), 65, 67
• Wesell, 14, 77
• Whale, Sperm, 32, 65, 75, 90, 91, 98
• Wheatear, 26 (note)
• Whelk, 47
• White-tailed Eagle, 3
• Whiting, 43
• Whinne Bird, 29, 76
• Wild Duck, 14
• Wild Goose, 12, 13
• Wild Swan, 7, 78, 80, 83, 88
• Wilkin, Simon, xviii. (note)
• Willick, 84, 88
• Wolf-fish, 38, 61, 86
• Woodcock (fish), 41
• Woodpecker, 21
• Wren, Dr. Christopher, xx.
• Wren, Gold-crested, 29, 76
• Wryneck, 22 (note)

X.

• Xiphias, 36

Y.

• Yarwhelp, 24, 73, 76

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Jarrold & Sons, The Empire Press, Norwich and London.