170 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
former times the number actually breeding in Norfolk 
was somewhat over estimated, owing to these foreign 
arrivals at the end of autumn, and it is not improbable 
that even the five bitterns shot in one day by Spencer’s 
uncle were killed in the winter. Can nothing be done 
to stop the annual slaughter of such visitants as these? 
of which some few, I feel confident under a protective 
system, would still pretty regularly remain to breed with 
us. Unhappily the hoopoe in summer, and the bittern 
in winter, are par excellence the “ raree aves” of provincial 
journalism, and this, in spite of the negative evidence so 
frequently afforded in our markets as regards the latter, 
by the sight of two or three exposed for sale at one 
time, which may be purchased at sums varying from one 
and sixpence to half a crown. My own notes during the 
last eighteen years are the most perfect refutation of 
the absurd notion that the bittern is a rare bird in 
Norfolk because it has ceased to breed with us, and 
although my list of examples killed during that period, 
contains only such as have come under my notice,* 
from being either sold in our fishmarket or brought into 
Norwich to be stuffed, yet I was scarcely prepared to find 
them amount to one hundred and eight specimens. Of 
these the greater number have been killed on the large 
broads that border upon the river Bure, not far from the 
coast, as at Hickling, Horsey, and Heigham-Sounds, or 
still further inland, about Wroxham and Hoveton, and 
occasionally at Barton and Ranworth. Many also have 
been procured from the smaller waters of Upton, Lud- 
ham, Sutton, and Stalham, but with the exception of 
the Burgh end of Breydon, they are but rarely met 
* Captain Longe when residing at Yarmouth, assured me that 
he believed nearly every winter from ten to twenty bitterns were 
brought into Yarmouth from the broad district, and a dealer 
there once assured me that he had had twenty in two months. 
