x INTRODUCTION. 



buildings of a bygone age, and with two or three broods 

 in the season to each pair, their collective progeny form 

 no small proportion of those huge flocks which, in 

 autumn, frequent the marshes and the reed-beds on 

 the Broads. 



In Mr. Hunt's time even the Lesser Spotted- Wood- 

 pecker (Picus minor) occasionally visited his garden in 

 Rose Lane, having flitted over the river from the 

 neighbouring woods at Thorpe ; and in more than one 

 instance, since the commencement of the present 

 century, a pair of Peregrines have been known to 

 fix their abode in the Cathedral spire. Not many 

 years back, also, a Hobby (Falco subbuteo) was shot 

 from a church tower in the very heart of the city. 

 The rare Dipper (Cinclus melanog aster) has been killed 

 on the river near the Lower Close-ferry, and Black- 

 Terns (Sterna fissipes), on their vernal migration, have 

 been shot near the same spot, from the Foundry-bridge, 

 whilst the list of accidental visitants includes many 

 migratory species, either attracted on their passage, 

 by the lamps of the city, or storm-driven from their 

 ordinary course. A Pochard (Fuligula ferina) has been 

 known to dash at night through the window of a house, 

 attracted by the glimmer of a candle, and wild fowl not 

 unfrequently alighted to rest on the reservoir of the 

 water-works, when situated, a few years ago, in Chapel- 

 Field. Little Auks (Mergulus alle) have in several 

 instances been picked up dead or dying in our streets, as 

 well as Little Grebes (Podiceps minor), during their 

 nocturnal movements, and on one occasion, also, a 

 Storm-Petrel was taken alive in Rose-Lane. 



In the immediate vicinity of the city, the modern 

 system of planting ornamental trees, more particularly 

 of the fir-tribe, and the introduction of many foreign 

 shrubs amongst our indigenous plants, has caused even 

 the smaller gardens and shrubberies to offer a congenial 



