208 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



near Southery. Throughout the winter this portion 

 of the county, which had so suddenly re-assumed its 

 normal condition, was the resort of large numbers of 

 wild fowl, and in the following spring the redshank, 

 which had ceased to breed in the Hockwold and Feltwell 

 fens for some years, returned to nest on the borders of 

 the newly formed lakes,* together with the black tern 

 and the black-headed gull, known only by tradition as 

 former denizens. In that western district, prior to the 

 drainage of the fens, redshanks were extremely plentiful, 

 although their nests were constantly robbed, and the 

 eggs, like those of the lapwings, were sold for three- 

 pence apiece. 



Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear in 1825, speaking 

 of the abundance of this species during the breeding 

 season in the marshes of Norfolk and Suffolk, describe 

 it as "more common than any other wader,*' and 

 such it no doubt remained for several years later, 

 not only in the ^' Broad " district, but along our exten- 

 sive seaboard, wherever the sand-hills are skirted 

 by salt or fresh water marshes. Some eighteen or 

 twenty years ago redshanks' eggs were sent regularly 

 every spring to the Norwich Market from Salthouse, 

 Blakeney, Warham, and similar localities, together with 

 those of the oystercatcher, ringed plover, and the 



* Mr. A. Newton tells me that on the 6th of May, 1853, he was 

 shown a nest in Hockwold Fen, containing one egg, and that on 

 the same day a man took one with three eggs, at Methwold. On 

 the 4th of June he and his brother Edward found on the edge of 

 Wangford Warren (iu Suffolk), close to a mere on which the 

 black-headed gull used formerly to breed, an old redshank which, 

 from its actions, evidently had newly hatched young ones, though 

 these could not be discovered. On the 17th of June Mr. Edward 

 Newton found a nest with four much incubated eggs in Hock- 

 wold Fen. In none of these localities had the species been known 

 to breed for many years previously, nor has it done so since, so far 

 as these gentlemen are aware. 



