CAPPED PETREL

There is an interesting collection of birds at Feltwell Hall and the chief attraction of the collection is the Capped Petrel. This bird was seen in the Spring of 1850 flapping about in an exhausted condition on a heath at Southacre, Norfolk, and was caught by a boy who killed it as it violently pecked his hand. Mr. Clough Newcombe happened at the time to be hawking close by and his falconer, John Madden, procured the bird and brought it to Mr. Newcome, who skinned and stuffed it. The home of this bird, which is now extinct, appears to have been in the islands of Guadaloupe and Dominica in the West Indies. On the Continent there are, or were, two, specimens, one at Boulogne and one at Budapest. Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk gives a coloured plate of this extremely rare bird.

Back to Written Records