56 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



same year, a female was shot at Rackheath ; and in 

 September a male at East Tuddenham ; and on the 

 llth of October I was shown one said to have been 

 run down in the vicinity of Norwich, which, most pro- 

 bably, came from Thorpe, as, on the 2nd of August, 

 1866, a specimen was also killed near this city, and one 

 in the following month on the Rackheath estate, 



Mr. Charles Jecks, of the Woodlands, Thorpe, 

 informs me that for more than twenty years he has 

 known a pair or two return in the spring to the same 

 portions of that elevated plateau, where the stony soil is 

 well suited to their habits. For several seasons they have 

 bred, by the side of a plantation, within two hundred 

 yards of his house, and having a naturalist's relish for 

 their wild musical " clamour" at night, he takes every 

 precaution to prevent their being disturbed. In the 

 summer of 1866, young ones were hatched early in May, 

 but as soon as these are able to fly, old and young 

 together quit that neighbourhood, and, wandering in 

 search of food beyond those friendly boundaries, too 

 often lose one or more of their party, by a chance shot, 

 before the time for migration arrives. Any how their 

 numbers have never increased. 



Mr. Lubbock, in a recent letter from Eccles, near 

 Attleburgh, says, "In my vicinity the great-plover is 

 following the bustard. Twenty years back I could hear 

 them every summer evening from my parlour when the 

 window was open. I have seen only one in the parish 

 for the last four years." Passing, on, however, further 

 to the south and west of the county, we come at once to 

 the " Breck " district, which from time immemorial 

 has been their chief resort, and where in many places 

 they still remain plentiful, although elsewhere agricul- 

 tural and other changes have had their effects. The 

 latter is more particularly observable in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Swaffham, where of late years they 



