Note 49 — NOTES[H] ON CERTAIN BIRDS FOUND IN NORFOLK.

This note is interesting as the first record of the occurrence of the Roller in Britain, to which country it is a rare wanderer. Although it had long been known on the Continent, its identity seems to have puzzled Browne, and he imagines (as did others, both before and after him,) it to be some kind of Jay; later, in his second letter to Merrett (January, 1668), he says that it answers to the description of Garrulus argentoratensis (the name given by Aldrovandus to whom it was known), and calls it "the Parrot-jay." This is five years after the original note was made, and we find that the words Garrulus argentoratensis, written by the same hand but with a different pen and ink, have been added subsequently, doubtless as the result of further information. In another letter he mentions having sent the bird to Merrett, but adds, "If you have it before I should bee content to have it againe otherwise you may please keep it."