INTRODUCTION. 



breeds regularly and in considerable numbers, adds its 

 strange drumming noise, at intervals, to this " armony of 

 fowles." Wild Ducks (Anas boschas) in large quantities, 

 and many a " coil " of Teal (A. crecca) are also reared 

 011 these waters, and afford good " flapper " shooting in 

 July and August ; and of the rarer species that may 

 still be named as summer residents on the larger Broads, 

 are the Shoveller (A.clypeata), Garganey (A. querquedula) , 

 and Great-crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) ; the Ruff 

 (Machetes pugnax), now confined entirely to Hickling, 

 and the Marsh-Harrier (Circus ceruginosus) , if by chance 

 escarping the doom of its race. The Spotted-Crake 

 (Crex porzana), as well as the common Water-Rail 

 (Rallus aquaticus), nest in the almost impenetrable 

 swamps, which accounts for their eggs being so rarely 

 obtained; and the accidental discovery, at Potter- 

 Heigham, during the past summer, of the nests and 

 eggs of Baillon's Crake (Crex baillonii), never before 

 known to breed in Norfolk, shows that even greater 

 rarities may pass unobserved in such localities. 



It would be needless to enumerate every little pool 

 which, surrounded by a wide tract of marsh, or reed- 

 ground, derives its local appellation from some adjacent 

 village. Of such there are many scattered here and 

 there, these waters varying in size, as Mr. Lubbock 

 remarks, from the "provincial pulk-hole to the wide 

 expanded lake," but those above mentioned comprise 

 all, in this neighbourhood at least, deserving of special 

 notice. 



The Yare, in its less winding course between 

 Norwich and Yarmouth, with a stronger current and 

 a deeper channel, gives rise to but three of these 

 shallow backwaters Surlingham, Rockland, and Has- 

 singham which complete our list. The first of these, 

 within five or six miles of Norwich, and comprising, 

 with the surrounding marshes, nearly a hundred acres, 



