DISTRIBUTION OF THE BIRDS OF SUFFOLK. 267 



no doubt, at one time, general upon them all, as well as among 

 the reed beds near the sea and elsewhere.* Many of the rarer 

 birds of Suffolk, as the Osprey, Kentish Plover, Avocet, 

 Wood Sandpiper, Temminck's Stint, Spoonbill, the Great and 

 Little Bittern, the Great Snipe, Gadwall, Garganey, and 

 Sclavonian Grebe, have, from time to time, been met with 

 on the Broads, Lakes and Meres, or round their edges. 

 On Fritton Lake were two decoys, one of which is still 

 worked, where Wild Ducks, Teal, and Wigeon are taken in 

 considerable numbers, averaging about a thousand annually; 

 there have been various other decoys in the county ; 

 but this is, probably, now the principal one, the decoys 

 of East A nglia having greatly diminished of late years.f 

 On the tidal Lakes, as was to be expected, a large number 

 of marine birds are to be found constantly, which appear 

 only occasionally on those of fresh water. 



The avifauna of the sea- coast is peculiarly rich ; almost 

 every species of British sea-bird having occurred there. At the 

 same time the absence of rocks accounts for the small 

 number of species known to breed. The Blackheaded Gull, 

 the only species of the genus which is known to have 

 bred in the county, formerly nested on a mere near Brandon, 

 many miles from the sea ; the birds were always robbed of 

 their eggs, and have not bred there for many years. Several 

 kinds of Terns, laying their eggs on the shingle, breed, or 

 have bred, not uncommonly. Besides them, the following are 

 the only marine species known to me to breed, or to have 

 bred : — the Eedshank, the Oyster Catcher, the Ringed Plover, 

 the Avocet, the Spoonbill, and the Cormorant. Among marine 

 passerine birds the Rock-pipit, found along the whole length 



* The reeds, formerly in extensive use have greatly fallen off of late), at Eush- 



for thatching, have no-vv fallen into mere, and at Nacton; there was also a 



neglect, and are no longer encouraged, decoy at Westleton. The decoy at Chil- 



and the birds have vanished with them. lesford has not been worked since Sir R. 



Wallace left Sudbourn Hall; that at 



f A full account of Fritton Decoy may Friston has not been in use for many 



be seen in G. C. Davies' Norfolk Broads years. That at Levington had ceased to 



and Rivers, 160 — 173. New Ed., 1884. exist early in the century. The above 



There still are, or lately have been, decoys information is derived from various friend? 



at Iken (where immense numbers of fowl and from S. and W., 45. 

 were formerly taken, but the numbers 



