264 DISTRIBUTION OP THE BIRDS OF SUFFOLK, 



Capercailzie. The absence of mountains and high hills, of 

 rocks and of rocky streams, accounts for the rarity of some 

 birds which frequent such localities, such as the Ring 

 Ouzel and the Dipper, which occur, the former only sparingly, 

 the latter very rarely. 



The diminution of woods and of timber in some parts of 

 Suffolk has probably not been without effect upon the 

 avifauna ; thus the Buzzard, formerly not uncommon, 

 has now become decidedly rare. The Magpie and the 

 Jay have also become much less common. The number 

 of these birds, and of all birds of prey, has been 

 further diminished by the incessant persecution of the 

 gamekeepers, who frequently do not distinguish between 

 the birds which are more or less mischievous to 

 game, and those who do very little harm to it, and are, in 

 other respects, extremely useful, such as the Kestrel* and 

 the Barn Owl. Every species of British climbing bird, the 

 Creeper, the Nuthatch, and the three Woodpeckers occur 

 in all our eight districts, though not abundantly, and one of 

 them but rarely ; they were probably at one time more 

 frequent than they now are. At the same time larch and 

 fir plantations have much increased, in some parts at least. 

 The Scotch firs were, during the last century, largely 

 planted in the " Breck district,'' where they were formerly 

 quite unknown ; and have thus been the cause of a great 

 multiplication in the numbers of the Long-eared Owl, 

 in whose esteem the Scotch fir stands highest among trees. 

 This appears to be the only bird of prey whose numbers 

 have increased of late years, the others having all diminished. 



The increasing inroads of civilization upon the Breck 

 district has been disastrous indeed to its ornithology. The 

 Bustard, once the glory of Norfolk and Suffolk, is now 

 extinct in these counties, the last Suffolk nest having been 

 found in 1832. Since that time indeed accidental visitors 

 have been seen ; the last, a male bird on the borders of 



* I much regret having, under Kestrel, when hard pressed for other food for its 

 ascribed poaching proclivities to that young. Sec Dresser, B. of Eur. vi., 381 ; 

 bird ; it appears to take young game only Booth, Hough Notes, pt. ii. 



