BIRDS 



from Lowestoft Harbour inland to Norwich, and thence in a north- 

 easterly direction to the sea at Happisburgh. So much has been written 

 about the Norfolk broads of late that it will suffice to say most of them 

 are situated adjacent to the river Bure or between that river and the sea. 

 Two, however, Surlingham and Rockland Broads, are on the river 

 Yare, within five or six miles of Norwich, and the picturesque lake 

 known as Fritton Decoy, with its active decoy, is in Lothingland, south 

 of Yarmouth. These broads are of all sizes, from mere ' pulk-holes ' 

 to Hickling, the extent of which is about 464 acres, and Breydon, with its 

 1,295 acres at high tide. In all, large and small, there are something 

 over forty of them. They are estimated to cover some 5,000 acres with 

 water. Some are deep, others shallow, some wooded to the water's 

 edge, but most of them are deeply fringed with reed-beds and surrounded 

 by many acres of sedgy marsh. In this section was the breeding-place in 

 former times of the cormorant and the spoonbill, the bittern, godwit, 

 avocet, and black terns innumerable, harriers and ruffs, many ducks and 

 waterfowl, and the rare Savi's warbler. Most of these are lost to us, 

 but some still remain in greatly reduced numbers. 



As Breydon Water (A.-S. brcedan, to spread out or broaden) will 

 be so often mentioned in the notes which follow, it seems desirable 

 to devote a few lines to its more particular description. This great 

 tidal lake at its upper end receives the united waters of the rivers 

 Yare and Waveney, with other smaller streams, and near its outlet at 

 the town of Great Yarmouth is entered by yet another river, the 

 Bure, or ' North River,' which flows from the north-west.^ At high 

 water it is nearly four miles in length and not quite a mile in width at 

 its broadest part, but when the tide is out it presents a vast expanse of 

 mud-flat, intersected by drains and creeks, the drier portions covered 

 with aquatic vegetation, the whole forming an ideal resting and feeding 

 place for waterfowl innumerable. The river Yare and the walls of 

 Breydon from Reedham to Yarmouth, a distance of about six miles, 

 form the southern boundary of a great alluvial plain some 14,000 acres 

 in extent, formerly one of the finest snipe grounds in England, and the 

 breeding-place of vast numbers of ruffs, redshank and lapwings, but 

 now drained, and affording summer pasturage to large herds of cattle 

 and sheep. This Breydon has probably produced more rare ducks and 

 waders than any like extent in the kingdom. I will only mention a 

 few which have been added to the list of British migrants from birds 

 first obtained at or near this favoured water and its affluents : Savi's 

 warbler, red-footed falcon, pectoral sandjtiper, Siberian pectoral sand- 

 piper, broad-billed sandpiper, white-winged tern, Caspian tern, Caspian 

 plover, red-crested pochard, and on the adjoining coast the buffle-headed 

 and Steller's ducks ; to which might be added many other species almost 

 equally rare. 



2nd. The ' Cliff' district lies chiefly at the north-east corner of the 

 county, between Happisburgh and Weybourne. The cliffs vary in height 



* The rivers of Norfolk have been estimated to extend to a length of some 200 miles. 



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