INTKODUCTION. XXIll 



■wanting on the reclaimed lands, their place is taken 

 during the nesting season by immense numbers of 

 ground-breeders amongst the Insessorial birds, such as 

 Larks, Pipits, Buntings, and Wagtails ; and the same 

 marshes in autumn and winter are frequented, in large 

 numbers, by Starlings, Jackdaws, and Rooks, attracted 

 in a great measure by the presence of the stock. A 

 few Lapwings still haunt the rougher spots, in spite 

 of constant persecvition, and in the marsh drains the 

 patient Heron (Arclea cinereaj, knee-deep, waits its 



prey — 



" Where Coots in rushy dingles hide. 

 And Moorcocks shun the day." 



Though differing much in their general features, 

 the Broads are still characterised, more or less, by 

 the shallowness of their waters. Wroxham certainly 

 affords depth enough for an annual regatta, and a 

 similar water frolic is held occasionally at Hickling, 

 but the latter is nowhere more than five feet deep, and 

 the channel, but indifferently marked out with stakes, 

 is by no means easy of navigation. Many are accessible 

 only by means of flat-bottomed boats, and even these 

 get aground in some places on the peaty bottom, 

 which may be seen only a few inches below the water, 

 wherever duck-weed or other minute vegetation has 

 not coated the surface. Some, as at Ranworth, Barton, 

 Wroxham, and Horsey, present a wide expanse of 

 water, surrounded by reed-beds and rushy borders, with 

 occasional islets of a similar growth ; or shrubs and 

 plantations of birch and alder sloping gradually down 

 to the water's edge. Others with a variety of little 



Stream to Hickling and Horsey Broads. The upper parts of the 

 Yare and Wensum above Normch, and of the Bure and Ant above 

 "Wroxham and Stalham, as well as their tributary streams, are, in 

 many places, fringed with peaty meadows, varying from one-eighth 

 to one-fourth of a mile in breadth." 



