Ixxii INTKODUCTION. 



praiseworthy exertions of tlie Eev. T. J. Blofeld, at 

 Hoveton, to found, as it were, a colony of Black- headed 

 Gulls on his estate, and the protection at the same 

 time afforded to the Grebes, Garganey, and other wild 

 fowl, proves, in comparison with similar and quite as 

 favourable localities, how much may still be effected, 

 within a limited area, by a conservative rather than an 

 exterminating system. 



In bringing our survey, then, to a close, we may 

 arrive at one conclusion, at least, of a satisfactory 

 nature. Whilst the larger mammalia, once inhabiting 

 this county have passed away for ever under the influ- 

 ences of civilization, the feathered race, owing to their 

 volant powers, have suffered only in degree. We have 

 here no wingless birds to become extinct through their 

 very helplessness, and even the Great Bustard still claims 

 a place in the Norfolk list as an occasional migrant. 

 Thus, though former residents may become accidental 

 visitants only, they are not lost to us altogether ; and so 

 long as the ocean shall continue to wash its boldly 

 projecting shores, and the periodical movements of the 

 feathered race be actuated by the marvellous instinct 

 of migration, so long, in spite of all internal changes, 

 will Norfolk maintain its ornithological reputation. 



