310 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
on the Bure and the Ant, where as yet the whistle of 
the locomotive is unknown, and a country wild in the 
extreme, and for the most part preserved, offers the 
most favourable conditions. About Horsey, Hickling, 
and Heigham Sounds, and again at Horning, Ranworth, 
and Hoveton, whether in summer or winter, they are 
mostly abundant; and on the Yare, owing to careful 
preservation of late years, many still remain, in favour- 
able seasons, in the neighbourhood of Surlingham, and 
some in the marshes about Langley and Buckenham, 
which, though now drained by steam, are specially 
mentioned in Lubbock’s “ Fauna” as more frequented 
than others by snipes in the breeding season “ being 
there protected from the unfair system of ‘egging.’” 
Indeed, the wide extent of marshes which the railroad 
now traverses, with but little intermission between 
Norwich and Yarmouth, and where, in Sir Thomas 
Browne’s time, the ruff and reeve bred freely with 
other grallatorial species, was formerly reckoned the 
best snipe ground, in Norfolk. 
Besides the above localities, a few scattered pairs 
may be found breeding in almost all parts of the 
county, wherever favourable spots present themselves. 
To the western fens, though in greatly decreased num- 
bers, they still resort annually in spite of all changes, 
as also to that small chain of fens bordering upon the 
river Thet, in the south-western part of the county, 
and the swampy margins or islands of the “ Meres,” 
which are chiefly situated in that neighbourhood. At 
Scoulton, near Hingham, many are bred annually on 
that portion of the “hearth” or island, in the centre 
of the Mere, which is least frequented by the black- 
headed gulls. A few “wet” commons, also, still happily 
preserved to us, form a summer habitat for this species, 
with the lapwing and redshank. Flordon Common to 
the south-east, on a tributary of the Taes; Walton 
