160 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
and the cormorant, had ceased to do so at the com- 
mencement of the present 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 five and 
twenty or thirty years that these, combined with 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 
egos—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 neighbourhood of the broads, renders his admirable 
description of the habits of our rarer marsh-birds of 
peculiar interest, writes 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 Hickling 
broad and Heigham Sounds. Four or five might be 
seen ina morning. The nest and young of this species 
appear to have been always difficult to find. After 
diligent enquiry, I could ascertain only two instances in 
