250 My Last Day in the Fen, 



retreat. The rufF and reeve were never common in this fen, but 

 farther down in the Thorny fen many couples were annually taken 

 ^nd fattened for the table. But one of the prettiest of all the little 

 fen birds, was the bearded tit {Parus llarmicus), which bred in the 

 reed-beds near the mere 3 and so eagerly were tlie birds and nests 

 sought after by our collectors, that every year it was becoming more 

 rare, and by this time, like many other of our rarer species, is 

 probably extinct. It was called in the fens the bell-ringer, from its 

 clear musical little note ; and I have many a time watched with 

 pleasure the graceful and airy motions of a family of these birds 

 flitting among the reeds after each otlier, in the manner of a long- 

 tailed tit down a tall hedgerow, or balancing tliemselves on the 

 reeds, their bell-like note ringing through the clear winter air. 

 They remained in the fen during the whole year 3 and were it not 

 that the gunner was forbidden to shoot among the reeds in the 

 winter, on account of the damage the shot would do, they would 

 probably have all been shot out long before my day. Another 

 curious and interesting object in the fauna of the fen was the 

 immense flights of starlings which nightly visited the mere at the 

 close of autumn to roost upon the reeds. They appeared to come 

 in from all quarters, and I have observed hundreds of these birds 

 passing over, heading for the fen many miles distant, at the close of 

 an October day. Thousands would settle on one spot, and the 

 damage they would do in one night was incalculable. One of the 

 fishermen who rented part of the reeds has told me that he has had 

 an acre broken down in one nighty and the pounds of powder 

 that were shot away in the big swivel guns every evening to drive 

 them oflf is past all belief. The guns were rarely shotted, or I am 

 certain on many evenings might have equalled Colonel Hawker's 

 famous "starling shot." 



But it was at the fall of the year that hundreds of aquatic birds 

 of difl^erent species, driven down from northern climes, resorted to 

 the fen for shelter 3 and it was then that the duck-shooters and 

 decoy-men reaped a rich harvest. Till the autumn floods set in 



