9026 Birds. 
reclaimed, no longer afford feeding-grounds for the various wild fowl ; 
and the very repairs necessary to prevent the encroachments of the 
sea are a constant source of disturbance to such species as formerly 
bred in the vicinity of the coast. The general enclosure of commons 
and waste lands has likewise, in its turn, affected other classes of birds, 
as well as the thinning of hedge-rows and other farming operations 
resulting of late years from an improved system of agriculture. To the 
latter cause may, in some degree, be attributed the much-to-be-regretted 
extinction of the great bustard in Norfolk, its last abiding place in the 
whole kingdom. The adoption of horse-hoeing, undoubtedly, facilitated 
the discovery of its nests and eggs amongst the spring corn (most of 
them being found in fields of rye), and the high price given for the eggs, 
which, for the most part, were placed under hens and hatched, with the 
hope of rearing the young birds, caused them to be taken whenever 
met with. The last bustard killed in this county was a female obtained 
at Lexham, near Swaffham, in 1838, the remnant of a small flock of 
hens, which had for some years frequented that neighbourhood; but 
no male birds then existing, their eggs were dropped about at random 
during the breeding season, and thus the whole race became entirely 
extinct. As an accidental migrant, can it alone be included in the 
“Norfolk List” at the present time, specimens having occurred here, 
as in other counties, which may fairly be considered as migratory 
visitants. Drainage and cultivation, however, but share with other 
causes a common result; the great increase of gunners, owing to the 
cheapness of fire-arms, and the ready means of transit by rail to almost 
all parts of the county (the iron road itself traversing between Norwich 
and Yarmouth some of the finest snipe marshes of former days), have 
done much towards completing that exterminating system which years 
of indiscriminate egging was fast effecting by itself. Rather may we 
wonder that so much still remains to the sportsman and naturalist than 
that so many familiar forms have ceased to appear, except as temporary 
sojourners on their migratory course. 
There is one group of birds, however, which demands a somewhat 
separate notice, its persecutions arising from a very different cause. 
No falcon, hawk, harrier or buzzard can long expect to escape the 
doom of its race in a strictly game-preserving district like the county 
of Norfolk; and scarcely can it be said that any birds of this class but 
the kestrel and sparrowhawk are still resident amongst us, although 
the nests of all three of the harriers are occasionally found in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Broads. The tawny and barn owls are both far less 
common than they used to be, and the shorteared owl, though a regular 
