[7] In the present day the Crane is only a rare straggler to this country generally at the seasons of its migration; that it was in times past abundant in suitable localities there is ample evidence; that it also bred in the fens of the Eastern Counties there is no reason to doubt, but very little direct evidence is forthcoming, therefore every fact bearing upon this point is of value. Had Sir Thomas Browne written with the intention of publishing his observations he would doubtless have told us much about this grand bird, which would have been of the greatest interest to modern ornithologists, but even the above brief remarks, as will be seen, are worthy of note. With regard to the occurrence of the Crane in the fens of East Anglia we have the following evidence; its fossil remains have been found in the peat at Burwell, in Cambridgeshire, and in excavating the docks at Lynn. Turner, in his "Avium Historia," Coloniæ, 1544, speaks of having seen young Cranes in this country, and as he passed fifteen years at Cambridge, it was probably in that neighbourhood that he met with them; then again there is the Act of Parliament, passed in 1534 (25th Hen. VIII. c. ii.), prohibiting the taking of their eggs (amongst those of other species) under a penalty of twenty pence. All this is well known, but being desirous to ascertain whether any reference to the Crane was to be found in the records of the Corporation of Norwich, Mr. J. C. Tingey, F.S.A., the custodian of the Muniment Room, at my request, most kindly searched the accounts of the City Chamberlain between the years 1531 and 1549. He there found numerous entries of sums expended in the purchase of cranes, swans, porpoises, &c., as presents to the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and others, and amongst them, on the 6th of June, 1543, a charge for a "yong pyper crane" from Hickling, which appears conclusive evidence of the breeding of this bird near Norwich at that time. (See "Transactions of the N. and N. Nat. Soc.," vii., pp. 160-170.)