THE BIRDS OF SUFFOLK 



(8.) Blackbourne, Thedwastre, Thingoe (including Bury 

 St. Edmund's). 



In some cases it is uncertain whether a bird inserted in the 

 following list was seen or obtained in Suffolk or in an adjoin- 

 ing county. Thus Yarmouth, partly in Norfolk partly in 

 Suffolk, is frequently the only locality given, or even 

 possible to be given, for a specimen, and in such cases it is 

 in vain attempting to say to which of the counties the bird 

 belongs. A specimen shot on Breydon Water, which divides 

 the counties, must almost necessarily be included in any list 

 either of Suffolk or of Norfolk birds ; and it is here, in the 

 opinion of a very competent judge, that more rare species 

 have been obtained than on any other spot in Kngland, 

 several indeed for the first time.* Thetford and Brandon, 

 again, are partly in Norfolk ; Sudbury, partly in Essex; and 

 Newmarket, although some portion of it is in Suffolk, belongs 

 mostly to Cambridgeshire. In the same way, certain rivers 

 are boundary lines, and birds brought from them may be said 

 to belong to both the counties which they divide. It has 

 been sometimes perplexing how to deal with a bird reported 

 from these places ; if the locality has been so minutely 

 specified as to make it certain in which county the 

 bird has been seen or obtained, it has only been 

 included in the list when that county is Suffolk; but if, as 

 is much more generally the case, a specimen is simply 

 marked "Yarmouth,'' or u Near Yarmouth," and the like, 

 it is always included ; and it would have to be equally 

 included in any list of birds of the adjoining county. This 

 uncertainty is of no serious importance as regards the 

 geographical distribution of birds in England, or even in 

 the county itself. 



For the eight districts given above, the following lists 

 and other documents have been used : — 



For No. 1 we have the list of birds (occupying ten 

 pages, pp. 3-13) in C. J. and James Paget's Sketches oj the 



* See St«Ten»oa'« Birds of Norfolk, vol. i,, p. irni. (Introduction.) 



