JN THE FENS. 391 



even in Bewick, by C. Girdlestone, Esq., which he 

 has in his private collection, at Yarmouth. In many 

 parts you^could scarcely walk without treading on the 

 eggs of terns, plovers, redshanks, and almost every 

 other kind of marsh-bird. At certain times, in the 

 winter, the fowl, on their passage from Holland to 

 the south, dropped in here, and literally blackened 

 the centre part of the lakes called Horsey-broad, and 

 Heigham Sounds, where they fancied themselves pro- 

 tected by the surrounding ice *. 



I, however, went to this country again, in 1824, 

 and found, that, owing to the drains for cultivation, 

 and increase of the decoys, the quantity of birds was, 

 and has for some year^ been, so much reduced, that I 

 was obliged to alter the MS. of this statement from 

 the present to the past time. . My account would 

 otherwise have proved a gross exaggeration. This 

 shows how few years will put a sporting book out of 

 date! 



The fens are famous for the ruffs and reeves ; but 

 these birds frequent such awkward places, and are so 

 wild during the summer, when they come here to 

 breed, that, as I before observed, they seldom afford 

 much sport for the gun. 



* I was here shown by Rogers his plan of getting fowl on the 

 ice. It was to cut four horses' leg bones, and after filing them 

 smooth, like skates, to place them longitudinally under a very 

 small punt ; and then, lying on his breast, to shove over the frozen 

 part, with two iron spikes. Any other means of passing a place 

 that was partially frozen would be dangerous in the extreme. 



