Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk

APPENDIX D.

Reading edition

Draft of a letter from Sir Thomas Browne to his daughter Elizabeth, enclosing two pictures of a Stork. This and the next letter are in the Bodleian Library (MS. Rawl. D. cviii.)

[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.

MS. RAWL. D. cviii.

Draft of a letter containing further particulars with regard to the Stork. There is nothing to indicate to whom it was addressed.

[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.

In addition to these letters there are in the Bodleian Library a letter from Elizabeth Browne to her brother, describing the above-mentioned Stork, and desiring him to keep one of the two pictures himself, and to give the other to his sister Fairfax (MS. Rawl. D. 108, fol. 71), and a draft of a letter from Sir Thomas Browne about a remarkable fly (see ante p. 68 and Note 110), which offended the cattle extraordinarily, found at Horsey Marshes (MS. Rawl. D. 108, fol. 103). There is also (MS. Rawl. D. 391, fol. 55) a letter from Sir Hamon le Strange to Sir T. B., dated Jan. 16, 1653. About half this letter is printed by Wilkin, i., pp. 369-70. He mentions towards the end that he sends certain observations on T. B.'s "Enquiries into Common Errors," at page "27 thereof I write of a whale cast upon my shoare." This criticism is now separated from the letter, which originally covered it, but happily is preserved in the British Museum, MS. Sloane, 1839. fols. 104-145.

Notes in this chapter

Note 16 · Although it has been met with in Norfolk, more frequently than perhaps in any other part of England, the Stork was never other than a rare s Note 1 · [110] Mr. Verrall assures me that even in the present day it is quite impossible to recognise the species of Diptera described by persons un Note 1 · Browne evidently was not very familiar with the Stork, which is not surprising, seeing that it is a very rare bird in Britain; it may be tha Note 2 · In reference to the Dutch fable of those days that Storks would only inhabit republican countries.Note 3 · The Spoonbill.