[_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.
[5] The Glede, or Puttock, of Turner, once so plentiful, is now only an extremely rare visitor to Norfolk. In 1815, it appears from Hunt ("British Ornithology"), not to have been uncommon, but the same authority in his list of Norfolk Birds contributed to Stacey's "History" of that County, speaks of the Kite as having in 1829 become extremely rare. It probably ceased to nest in this County about the year 1830, or perhaps a little later. Browne's reason for its comparative scarcity about the City of Norwich, viz., the abundance of Ravens mentioned at p. 27 _infra_, is very interesting to us in the present day when Kites and Ravens are almost equally rare.
[6] It seems likely that Browne here refers to two species of Harrier, the Grey Buzzard being the male of the Hen Harrier (including of course Montagu's Harrier which was not discriminated till long after) in its grey adult plumage, whereas the Marsh Harrier, with its light yellow head, to which the word "bald" as then used might well be applied, would stand for the "Bald Buzzard." The Harriers, which were till long after the time he wrote extremely numerous, are generally called "Buzzards" by the natives, and it will be noticed at p. 15 _infra_, that what is doubtless intended for the Marsh Harrier is spoken of as an enemy to the Coots; also at p. 56, it is said that young Otters "have been found in the Buzzards nests," a very likely circumstance with so fierce a bird, and one of which I have an impression I have heard in recent years. The Hen Harrier is now an extremely rare bird with us; the Marsh Harrier still occasionally nests in the Broads, and Montagu's Harrier now and then attempts to rear a brood, but even should the parents succeed in escaping it is very seldom they carry their young with them. Professor Newton has kindly favoured me with the following additional interesting note on this bird. "The Marsh Harrier is certainly the 'Balbushardus' of Turner (1544), which, though he says it is bigger and longer than the ordinary _Buteo_, has a white patch on the head and is generally of a dark brown (_fuscus_) colour, hunting the banks of rivers, pools, and marshes, living by the capture of Ducks, and the black birds which the English call Coots (_Coutas_). This he, Turner, has himself very often seen, and he describes its habits correctly; adding that it also takes Rabbits occasionally. Gesner, 1555, quotes Turner, but refers the Bald Buzzard to the Osprey (which he figures), and so the mistake began. Certainly Willughby's Bald Buzzard is the Osprey, but his book was not published when Browne wrote."