yp BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
frozen out, and even such birds as remained in 
our fields and hedgerows were dying from cold and 
hunger, some of the weightiest snipes I ever handled 
were killed near a spring head in an inland situation. 
In the neighbourhood of Norwich the low meadows at 
Thorpe, Lakenham, Cringleford, Harlham, Bowthorpe, 
and other places, are all more or less likely under such 
circumstances; although too much drained to afford at 
other times, the sport which in former years could be 
had there throughout the season.* The wet commons 
before mentioned, as well as the marshes bordering on 
the coast, both salt and fresh water, are also much 
frequented during the first day or two of frost. In the 
first week of December, 1862, during severe weather, an 
immense number of snipes were found scattered over the 
county, and in somewhat unusual localities. Seventeen 
couples and a half were killed off the “ronds”t only on 
* Daniel, in his “ Rural Sports” (vol iii, p. 178), gives some 
interesting observations by a Norfolk gentleman “upon the times 
of the snipe’s appearance in the vicinity of Norwich,” both in 
spring and autumn; and in these notes made in the years 1800 
and 1801, Moushold-heath is mentioned as a locality frequented 
by them. Even within the last forty or fifty years good snipe- 
shooting could be had, about Trowse and Lakenham, close to the 
city, the winding course of the Yare presenting many tempting 
spots for these birds in the various islets, osier-carrs, and reed- 
beds, whilst the surrounding meadows were not then “too good.” 
Yet here—except in frosty weather, when I have killed three or 
four couples in a morning out of the marsh drains, a snipe is rarely 
seen at the present time. 
+ In his “Ornithological Notes from the Scilly Islands,” 
* Zoologist,” 1865 (p. 9452), Mr. E. H. Rodd describes the snipes 
during frost and snow, as “feeding with the poultry in front of 
the drawing room window, * * * and it was a pretty sight 
to see an old turkey cock pursue a snipe by the Abbey Pool.” 
{ These wide and swampy margins to the river (called in the 
western part of the county ‘“ washes’), lying between the water’s 
edge and the raised bank which protects the adjoming lands 
