INTRODUCTION. XV11 



extensive warren at Winterton has peculiar attractions 

 for the larger Raptorial migrants. 



With no more decided boundary between the two 

 counties than the rivers Waveney and Little Ouse, it is 

 impossible to speak of the Norfolk Broads without 

 reference also to those of the sister county, since the 

 mere accident of a bird's landing a few yards further 

 to the north or south may decide the claims of either 

 to some rare specimen. On the Suffolk side of the 

 Waveney, then, are Lake Lothing, Oulton, and Fritton 

 waters (the latter with a decoy still in working order), all 

 of which have contributed much to the avi-fauna of that 

 county ; and nearest to these, within our own boundary, 

 and immediately abutting on the town of Great Yarmouth, 

 lies the far famed Breydon. This great tidal basin, the 

 common embouchure of the Yare, the Waveney, and the 

 Bure on their seaward course towards the mouth of the 

 Haven, presents, alternately, a wide sheet of shallow 

 water, three miles in length and a mile and a-half in width, 

 or extensive mud " flats" when the converging streams 

 are confined for a time to their narrow channels. At 

 flood tide, however, the navigable portions are indicated 

 by long lines of posts on either side, and thus wherries 

 and other light craft are enabled to avoid the shoals. 

 It is impossible to imagine a spot more attractive than 

 this both to the grallatorial and natatorial tribes, the 

 "flats," at low water, affording throughout the year 

 an inexhaustible supply of food in the shape of Crustacea, 

 Mollusca, and various aquatic insects. The harder the 

 winter the greater are the flocks of Dunlins and other 

 Tringce, Gulls, and wild fowl collected here as to one 

 common banquet, when frozen out from more inland 

 waters; and incredible almost are the numbers killed 

 in some seasons by the gunners, whose flat-bottomed 

 boats float in the little creeks, or are pushed easily over 

 the "muds" when a "lumping" shot presents itself. 

 c 



