His description of the bird leaves no doubt as to the species intended.
Willughby, a contemporary and correspondent of Sir Thomas Browne, has described, in his 'Ornithology,' a young Spoonbill "taken out of the nest," and although he has not stated where the nest was found, it may well have been one of those referred to as being in existence at Trimley in Suffolk about four years before VVilhighby's death, which occurred in 1672.[1]
The record to which I now desire to direct attention is a century older, and, so far as I am aware, has not hitherto been brought to the notice of ornithologists.
In a MS. Survey of certain manors in Sussex, "taken by commandemente of the Duke of Norfolk," and "begoune the xxvth daye of September, Anno xij° Eliz. R." (1570), the following memorandum appears:—
"MḌ that wthin half a furlouge of Halnaker parke pale on the west side thereof lyeth a parke called Goodwoode Parke; and by the northest pane thereof lyeth one other parke called Shelhurst Parke, distaunte from Halnaker pale one quarter of a myle. And on the north side of that pale lyeth one other parke called Eslden, halfe a myle dystaunte. In the woods called the Westwood and the Haselette, Shovelers and Herons have lately breed, and some Shovelers breed there this yeere."
This curious MS., consisting of fourteen folios, is in the possession of Mr. Evelyn P. Shirley. The Survey in question, which was made by "Robte Harrys and John Dobbes, servauntes to the said Duke," is noticed in the ninth volume of the 'Sussex Archæological Collections' (p. 223), but the contributor, the late Mr. M.A. Lower, not being an ornithologist, has made no comment on the passage just cited.
Dallaway, in his 'History of the Western Division of the County of Sussex' (vol. i., p. 174), thus describes the locus in quo:—
"East Dean is so called with reference to West Dean, from which it is disjoined by Singleton. It is a parish of larger
- ↑ Sir Thomas died exactly ten years later. Willughby speaks of him (op. cit., p. 286) as "my honoured friend Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich, a person deservedly famous for his skill in all parts of learning, but especially in Natural History."
