BIRDS In order rightly to interpret the full significance of a local fauna, it is essential that all the circumstances which tend to render attractive the region forming the home or place of temporary resort of its members should be studied in detail. But this falls within the provinces of the geologist and botanist, and I must only in this place describe somewhat fully certain physical features which, by reason of their peculiar at- tractiveness, in a great measure account for the exceptional richness of our ornis. In no part of the British Isles are such localities more abundant than in the county of Norfolk, a fact due in part to its favour- able geographical position, but perhaps in an even greater degree to the endless diversity of its soil and surface, and to that happy admixture of land and water, sea shore and estuary, so grateful to a large majority of the feathered visitants, whose varied requirements are thus fully met. We can boast of no violent transitions from mountain to valley, forest or treeless waste, rocky glen or rushing torrent ; still, so great is the variation in the physical features of the county, even though the scale be not a very extensive one, that we are fully justified in applying Fuller's oft-quoted remark that ' all England may be carved out of Norfolk, being represented in it, not only as to the kinds but degree thereof; for here are fens and heaths, light and deep, sand and clay grounds, meadow-lands, pastures and arable, woodlands and woodless ' ; ^ and this, to a great extent, holds good even in the present day, in spite of the many changes which have taken place since the words were penned. Fortunately, the late Mr. Stevenson, in the Introduction to his Birds of Norfolk,^ has so ably handled this subject that a brief summary of his exhaustive article must suffice. There are, however, two special locali- ties which demand more careful description, as they are unequalled for the attractions they offer to a certain class of birds, and these I shall speak of further on. Mr. Stevenson divides the county into six distinct and well-marked regions, the characteristics of each of which are still very apparent, and these he names as follows: i, the 'Broad' district; 2, the 'Cliff'; 3, the 'Meal'; 4, the ' Breck ' ; 5, the 'Fen'; and 6, the 'En- closed ' district. To each of these it may be well to devote a few words. I St. The 'Broad' district is a triangular tract of country forming the most easterly portion of the county, and including that part of Suffolk known as Lothingland. It is comprised within a line drawn
- Worthies of England (1662) 410 edit. 1811, vol. ii. p. 124.
- Blrd$ of Norfolk, vol. i.. Introduction, pp. i.-lxxii.
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