1^6 



BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



Fi-om 21st December to 2Sth Deccmhci: 



Full Snipe 207 



Jack Snipe 6 



Woodcocks — 11 



Green and Golden Plover 100 



Water-hens 57 



Coots 17 



Water Rails 14 



Land Rails 1 



Stints 360 



Owls 7 



Grebes 13 



Herons 7 



Teal 37 



Golden-ejes, &c 73 



Duck and Mallard (87 



from Decoy) 197 



1,107 



From December 14th to December 21st ... 1,600 

 21st „ 28th ... 1,107 



2,707 



Of the twentj-two grebes, three were dabchichs, one 

 "eared" grebe (probably Sclavoiiian), the remaming 

 eighteen were great crested ; the ^' golden-ejes " were 

 almost all tufted ducks, the former being a common 

 name for that species amongst the Norfolk gunners. 

 In the month of December, 1884, during a very severe 

 frost, a game dealer, at Yarmouth, also sent away to 

 London, late in the month, 700 fowl, including a large 

 number of pochards. 



In former days the quantity of ducks resorting to the 

 south-western corner of the county in winter must have 

 been very large. A man, named Williams, who hired 

 the Lakenheath decoy, which ceased to be worked after 

 the railway from Brandon to Ely had been opened, is 

 said to have cleared £1000 in a single year, and to have 

 sent a ton and a-half of fowl to London four times a 

 week. Sir Edward Newton was told by the late Mr. 

 Birch, in 1853, that when Lord Paget (afterwards the 

 celebrated Lord Anglesey) lived at Wretham, Avhich was 

 prior to the year 1815, George Turner (of bustard-killing 

 notoriety) is said to have killed the extraordinary 

 number of 130 ducks, on the great mere, at one dis- 

 charge of his big gun. But, for number and variety, 

 perhaps the following mixed bag, made by Lord Wal- 

 singham to his own gun (the particulars of which 



