430 BIRDS OP NOKFOLK. 



had information : — " This species used formerly to be 

 very common in the neighbourhood of Diss. It is now 

 become scarce, but still occasionally breeds in that part 

 of the county; and not long since two quails' nests 

 were found by some workmen mowing clover. In one 

 of them there were seventeen eggs; in the other 

 twelve. We have also received its eggs from the 

 neighbourhood of Hunstanton, in Norfolk. These 

 birds are also become scarce in those parts of 

 Suffolk where they formerly abounded." Mr. Lubbock, 

 in 1845, says ("Fauna of Norfolk") :— "The quail has 

 become very scarce of late years. Formerly it was 

 common in the immediate vicinity of this city : often 

 found at Earlham, Thorpe, Plumstead, and other neigh- 

 bouring places. * -J^- ■5«- I have not seen one in flight 

 for many years." In the following year, also, Messrs. 

 Gurney and Fisher, in their " Birds of Norfolk," 

 though including it amongst our regular summer 

 visitants, remark, that "its numbers are very limited, 

 and it is very local in its habits, showing a decided 

 preference to sandy soils. It was formerly a far more 

 numerous species in Norfolk than at present ; so much 

 so, that fifty years ago it was not uncommon for a 

 sportsman to kill on light lands, early in the month of 

 September, three or four brace of these birds in a day." 

 At present, although single nests are found from time 

 to time in almost all parts of the county, the great 

 stronghold of this species in Norfolk, during the summer 

 months, is in the rough fens of the south-western 

 district, in the neighbourhood of Feltwell, where, as 

 my friend Mr. Newcome informed me in 1860, he had 

 found them so plentiful that from ten to twelve couple 

 might be shot in a day; but he had only recently 

 discovered that they frequented those parts in such 

 large numbers. The birds are of course very difficult to 

 ^'^get up" in such thick cover, and the nests are also 



