. Birds. 9025 
Noles on the Ornithology of Norfolk. 
By Henry STEVENSON, Esq. 
THE reputation which this county has always maintained as being one 
of the richest ornithological districts in the United Kingdom, is quite 
unaffected by those local causes which have of late years altered the 
habits of many of our resident species. Not only is its bold projecting 
coast-line, extending from Yarmouth on the extreme eastern point to 
Hunstanton and Lynn on the north-west, peculiarly favourable for the 
advent of all migratory species, but the variety of attractions presented 
by the diversity of the soil and sudden transitions from one formation 
to another, are such, perhaps, as can be nowhere equalled in the same 
extent of country. On the coast itself we find a strange alternation of 
sand and shingly beaches, salt marsh, cultivated land, and low sandy 
hills, or lofty cliffs, with rich grassy summits and thick woods, in close 
vicinity to the sea. Besides which, to a very large proportion of our 
migratory visitants, the tidal channels of Breydon, Blakeney and Lyun 
present, at low water, from their wide extent of mud banks, an inex- 
haustible supply of food; and, more inland, the shallow waters and 
reedy margins of the “ Broads,” surrounded by large tracts of luxuriant 
marshes, form the natural resort, both in winter and summer, of many 
of the aquatic tribes. To the natural advantages, therefore, of the 
locality itself, the fact that the number of species included in the avi- 
fauna of Norfolk has increased rather than diminished, of late years, is 
mainly attributable. Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, in their “ Account 
of the Birds found in Norfolk,” published in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1846, 
give the total number of species at that time as 277 ; and, even omitting 
one or two birds, hitherto included on insufficient authority, the total 
number at the present time amounts to 293. It is, however, in the 
nesting habits of many residents, and the absence during the summer 
months of others, which formerly remained to breed in this county, 
that we really find the changes which have been effected by local 
causes during the last twenty or thirty years. 
Civilization and cultivation go hand-in-hand, and as the necessities 
of our Jargely-increased population demand still greater exertions to 
supply the required food, the wild denizens of the marsh recede before 
the rapid inroads of the plough, drainage on all sides narrows their 
boundaries, and, as surely as the waving corn crops succeed the 
feathery reed-stems, the call of the partridge takes the place of the 
redshank’s whistle and the drumming noise of the snipe. Salt marshes 
VOL. XXII. YX 
