170 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



former times the number actually breeding in Norfolk 

 was somewhat over estimated, owing to these foreign 

 arrivals at the end of autumn, and it is not improbable 

 that even the five bitterns shot in one day by Spencer's 

 uncle were killed in the winter. Can nothing be done 

 to stop the annual slaughter of such visitants as these ? 

 of which some few, I feel confident under a protective 

 system, would still pretty regularly remain to breed with 

 us. Unhappily the hoopoe in summer, and the bittern 

 in winter, are par excellence the " rarse aves " of provincial 

 journalism, and this, in spite of the negative evidence so 

 frequently afforded in our markets as regards the latter, 

 by the sight of two or three exposed for sale at one 

 time, which may be purchased at sums varying from one 

 and sixpence to half a crown. My own notes during the 

 last eighteen years are the most perfect refutation of 

 the absurd notion that the bittern is a rare bird in 

 Norfolk because it has ceased to breed with us, and 

 although my list of examples killed during that period, 

 contains only such as have come under my notice,* 

 from being either sold in our fishmarket or brought into 

 Norwich to be stuffed, yet I was scarcely prepared to find 

 them amount to one hundred and eight specimens. Of 

 these the greater number have been killed on the large 

 broads that border upon the river Bure, not far from the 

 coast, as at Hickling, Horsey, and Heigham-Sounds, or 

 still further inland, about Wroxham and Hoveton, and 

 occasionally at Barton and Eanworth. Many also have 

 been procured from the smaller waters of Upton, Lud- 

 ham, Sutton, and Stalham, but with the exception of 

 the Burgh end of Breydon, they are but rarely met 



* Captain Longe when residing at Yarmouth, assured me that 

 he believed nearly every winter from ten to twenty bitterns were 

 brought into Yarmouth from the broad district, and a dealer 

 there once assured me that he had had twenty in two months. 



