STONE CURLEWS AS OBSERVED AROUND
THETFORD.
By W.G. Clarke.
The first Stone Curlew graphically described to British ornithologists was a specimen killed near Thetford in 1674, a drawing of which was forwarded to Ray by Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich. Since that time the "breck" district of Norfolk and Suffolk, of which Thetford is the centre, has been known as the great stronghold of this bird in Britain. Although the number of Stone Curlews breeding in the district has doubtless greatly diminished since that period, it still seems probable that the numerical loss has been little since the time of Salmon in the early thirties. This year they are certainly far more plentiful than they have been during the last ten years. A belt of heathland from four to eight miles wide surrounds Thetford—which for this reason has been designated "the town on the heath"—and hereon the Stone Curlews nest yearly.
J.D. Salmon, F.L.S., recorded the first arrivals of the bird in the district as on March 27th, 1834; March 15th, 1835; and March 28th, 1836. My own dates are April 2nd, 1892; March 31st, 1893; March 28th, 1894; March 31st, 1895; and March 24th, 1897. This year, however, they were noted by a very accurate observer at Great Fakenham, Suffolk, during the last week of February. The main body has generally departed by the middle of October, but Salmon started one on December 9th, 1834, and on December 12th, 1894, I distinctly heard one whistling almost incessantly for fifteen minutes from Barnham Cross Common, a mile from Thetford. A pair were also observed here in March, 1853, during deep snow.
On March 25th last, the day after their arrival in the district, these birds seemed to be extremely plentiful upon the heaths and upland "brecks" north and west of Thetford. Their whistling was almost continuous, albeit blurred, as it always is
