288 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



to some of the inland waters, almost invariably occur- 

 ring in the spring- and autumn months. Turner, writing 

 in 1544 of this bird under the name of " mergus," says 

 that he had seen it nesting on the Northumbrian rocks 

 at the mouth of the Tyne, as well as among herons in 

 tall trees, in Norfolk. His evidence, quoted by Aldro- 

 vandi, in 1603, as that of " a certain Englishman," was 

 repeated by Willughby in 1676 ; but Sir Thomas Browne, 

 in his account of the birds found in Norfolk a few 

 3^ears earlier, gives more precise information ; and speaks 

 of " cormorants building at Reedham, upon trees from 

 whence King Charles the first was wont to be supplyed." 

 There is no evidence, I believe, to show at what date 

 the cormorant ceased to breed at Reedham, but at Her- 

 ringfleet, on the banks of the beautiful Fritton Lake, 

 they continued to do so far into the first half of the 

 present century. Mr. Lubbock states that " cormorants 

 have in some seasons nested in the trees around Fritton 

 decoy in some numbers ; in other years there has not 

 been one nest. These woods used to be, perhaps are, 

 their favourite resort during the time of low water upon 

 Breydon.""^ There is, I believe, no record of their having 

 bred at Herringfleet since the date mentioned by Mr. 

 Lubbock, and it is probable they ceased to do so about 

 that time. Hunt does not mention their breeding either 

 at Reedham or Herringfleet, although an incidental re- 

 mark when writing of the shag (" British Ornithology," 

 vol. iii., p. 47) would lead one to suppose that he had 

 the fact of their doing so present in his mind. " This 

 species" [the shag], says he, "is never known to visit 

 our fresh-water rivers, which the cormorant frequently 

 will, and in some places make their nests in trees, on 

 \vhich they frequently perch by the sides of rivers." 



* In Mr. Lubbock's copy of " Bewick " occurs the following 

 more precise and interesting note : — " These birds seem fond of 

 occasionally exchanging salt and fresh water ; perhaps, like epi- 

 cures, variety offish is the inducement, but during the autumnal 

 months they are to be seen at all hours sailing like wild geese 

 with slow and steady motion, in their trips from Breydon to Her- 

 ringfleet, where in some years there have been fifty or sixty nests 

 (in 1825, for instance); in the present year, 1827, not a single 

 one," 



