22 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



observed in our markets of late years, even in the 

 most severe winters ; and I have experienced no little 

 difficulty in procuring a local specimen or two, in the 

 flesh, to compare with the pink-footed for the purposes 

 of this work. 



In the " Breck " district the bean goose has been 

 accustomed to arrive by the middle of October, and until 

 within a comparatively recent period, as Mr. Anthony 

 Hamond informs me, wild geese might have been seen 

 by hundreds on the stubbles of the Great Westacre and 

 Walton Fields,^ at the time of the Swaffham coursing 

 meetings in the second week of November. But 

 although little, if any, alteration has taken place within 

 the last half century in the general aspect of that 

 portion of the county, either by enclosure or planting, 

 the constant disturbance occasioned by the altered 

 system of agricultural operations may account, probably 

 in a great degree, for the marked diminution in the 

 number of these birds, peculiarly wary by nature and 

 suspicious of the presence of man. In 1861 Mr. Hamond 

 shot three bean geese at Westacre, and one at Walton, 

 but even in the severe winter of 1870-71, he could 

 not ascertain that any wild geese had been observed 

 feeding on the Westacre stubbles, and believes they 

 have ceased to do so, although seen passing over in 

 large " skeins ;" nevertheless the pink-footed goose, was 

 remarked at Anmer, in the course of that winter. A 

 further haunt also of this species, as well as of that 

 last described, is the wild country about Thetford and 



portion to all the other species, than was formerly the case. 

 Including Dutch birds, their order as to abundance appears to be 

 brent, bernacle, pink-footed, white-fronted, bean, and grey-lag. 



* The late Rev. Robert Hamond in a letter to Selby, dated 

 Swaffham, April 28th, 1824, speaks of his endeavours to procure 

 the Iceland falcon to hawk bustards and wild geese in the West- 

 aci-e ueighbourhood. 



