160 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



and tlie cormorant, had ceased to do so at tlie com- 

 mencement of the j)resent century. But whilst from 

 this time we must date those agricultural changes 

 which were destined to alter the general aspect of 

 the county, it was not until within the last fire and 

 twenty or thirty years that these, combined mth other 

 causes, resulted in the extermination of so many resident 

 species. Amongst our marsh-breeders the curtailment, 

 and in some places total reclamation of their haunts 

 through drainage, has been the main cause of extinc- 

 tion, but the increasing demands of collectors, of late 

 years, and the high prices given for both birds and 

 eggs — the cheapness of firearms, and rapid transit by 

 rail to all parts of the kingdom, affording every 

 facility — ^have conduced not a little to the same end, 

 and former residents, receiving additions to their 

 numbers in autumn and winter, can be described now 

 only as migrants, perhaps occasionally remaining to 

 breed. As such the Bittern alone holds its place 

 amongst the birds of Norfolk at the present time, 

 although, like the heron, entered as " common," in 

 Hunt's List in 1829 ; and our sexagenarian sportsmen 

 well remember the time when they used to flush both 

 young and old birds from the reed-beds whilst flapper- 

 shooting in the early autumn. 



Mr. Lubbock, whose residence for many years in 

 the neighboui'hood of the broads, renders his admirable 

 description of the habits of our rarer marsh-birds of 

 peculiar interest, wi-ites in 1845, " the bittern has 

 decreased much in number in the last twenty years. 

 I remember when these birds could be found with 

 certainty in the extensive tracts of reed about Hicklmg 

 broad and Heigham Sounds. Four or five might be 

 seen in a morning. The nest and young of this species 

 appear to have been always difiicult to find. After 

 diligent enquiry, I could ascertain only two instances in 



