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 (in 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. 
