A HISTORY OF NORFOLK of the county, bordering on the Fens. Here was the home of the great bustard and is still that of the stone curlew, ring plover and of several species of ducks which abound in the curious lakes known as ' meres,' found more especially on the lonely heaths about Wretham and Merton. 5th. The ' Fen ' district in the extreme west of the county, which extends from Brandon to Lynn, and is bounded by the counties of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. This also includes some 57,000 acres of reclaimed land known as marshland. The ' Fens ' in past times abounded with the three species of harriers, the bittern, ruff, black tern, and many other birds. This division also shared with the ' Broads,' the distinction of harbouring Savi's warbler, but (like the other species enumerated) it has disappeared before improved drainage which has changed this division of the county perhaps more than any other, the only piece of true sedge-fen remaining being at Wicken in Cambridge- shire. The remaining division, the 6th, or ' Enclosed,' district, comprises the central portion of the county extending from Norwich to the boundary of the ' Breck,' and from the Suffolk border in the south, north- ward to the sea. This area includes the most highly cultivated portion of the county, and is, as a rule, well timbered and divided into small enclosures by hedgerows ; it abounds with the numerous species of birds usually frequenting highly cultivated lands, and, being a great game country, is as a rule strictly preserved. The easterly position of the county of Norfolk, together with its ex- tensive sea-board and the favoured retreats already alluded to, offer excep- tional attractions to the great army of passing migrants which at certain seasons of the year perform their perilous journeys, and no part of the kingdom is more favourably situated for the observation of these periodic movements. The autumnal advent is thus described by Mr. Gurney : — ' The vast army is heralded by the arrival in September of redstarts, wheat- ears, pied flycatchers, whitethroats, nightjars, little stints, pigmy curlews, etc. ; but when October sets in, the greatest influx takes place . . . Buzzards, and other birds of prey, soar aloft in circles, while the eye which knows her flight will catch the distant peregrine falcon, or more frequently the kestrel or merlin. Short-eared owls are discovered in flocks of fifteen or twenty ; and the gamekeeper, going his morning rounds, finds that long before he was up there had been an early arrival of jays and sparrow-hawks. Straggling parties of grey crows, jackdaws, and rooks dot the air for days together, while snow-buntings and flocks of chaffinches appear in the fields nearest to the sea. Bramblings, twites, siskins, shore-larks and mealy redpolls are heard of at our birdcatchers', snipe and plovers are seen on the marshes. Sky-larks come over in clouds, and, mingled with them, are regiments of starlings flying westward with steady purpose. The woodcock, tired with the long flight from Norway, halts to rest after his nocturnal journey in the first plantation he reaches, or drops among the sandhills. The fieldfare and redwing appear, and the number of song-thrushes and blackbirds in the 224
