DISTRIBUTION OF THE BIRDS OF SUFFOLK. 



We cannot take a comprehensive view of the natural 

 history of any district, without taking some account of the 

 character of the district itself. The County of Suffolk is a 

 portion of East Anglia, and contains about fifteen hundred 

 square miles, or nine hundred and forty-four thousand acres. 

 These form an irregular figure, in some degree resembling 

 a trapezium, the coast line being about fifty miles in length, 

 the greatest breadth from east to west about fifty-six, and 

 the greatest length from north to south about thirty-two. 

 It is bounded on the north by Norfolk, from which it is 

 separated by the Little Ouse and the Waveney, which 

 rise close together, and flow on in opposite directions; on 

 the west by Cambridgeshire ; on the south by Essex, from 

 which it is in great part separated by the Stour ; and on the 

 east by the German Ocean. 



The character of the surface is much varied, it consists 

 of heavy clay, and of light lands of mixed soil, the former 

 much preponderating. Cereals are largely cultivated, but 

 there is some pasture land. There are various heaths and 

 barren tracts of rough ground, principally used for sheep- 

 walks and rabbit-warrens. A more or less broken belt of 

 heath and furze extends near the coast from Lowestoft 

 to the river Orwell, where Calluna, Erica tetralix and 

 cinerea grow in greater or less abundance. It is intersected 

 by arable and marsh land which sometimes comes down to 

 the coast. The heath land is in many places separated 

 from the sea by a belt of marshes protected from the sea 

 by " walls," except where there are low sand-hills, as, 

 for instance, from Minsmere sluice to Sizewell ; these, 

 locally called bent-lands, are partly covered with furze. 

 Some small patches of heath lie between Lowestoft 



