76 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
in circuit, communicating with each other by narrow reedy straits; they are 
very shallow, none are above four or five feet in depth; but abound with 
fish, such as Pike, Perch, Ruff, Bream, Tench, Rud, Dace, Roach, Burbot, 
Sticklebacks, and Eels. 
“Tt is observable that, once in seven or eight years, immense shoals of 
Sticklebacks appear in the Welland below Spalding, and attempt coming up 
the river in form of a vast column. They are supposed to be the collected 
multitudes washed out of the fens by the floods of several years, and carried 
into some deep hole; when, over-charged with numbers, they are obliged to 
attempt a change of place. They move up the river in such quantities as to 
enable a man, who was employed in taking them, to earn, for a considerable 
time four shillings a day, by selling them at a halfpenny per bushel. They 
were used to manure land, and attempts have been made to get oil from 
them. The fen is covered with reeds, the harvest of the neighboring 
inhabitants, who mow them annually; for they prove a much better thatch 
than straw, and not only cottages, but many very good houses are covered 
with them. Stares, which during winter resort in myriads to roost in the 
reeds, are very destructive, by breaking them down by the vast numbers 
that perch on them. ‘The people are therefore very diligent in their 
attempts to drive them away, and are at great expense in powder to free 
themselves of these troublesome guests. I have seen a stack of reeds 
harvested and stacked worth two or three hundred pounds, which was the 
property of a single farmer. 
“ The birds which inhabit the different fens are very numerous: I never 
met with a finer field for the zoologist to range in. Besides the common 
Wild-duck, of which an account is given in another place,* wild Geese, 
Garganies, Pochards, Shovelers, and Teals, breed here. I have seen in the 
East Fen a small flock of the tufted Ducks; but they seemed to make it 
only a baiting place. The Pewit Gulls and black Terns abound; the last, 
in vast flocks, almost deafen one with their clamors: a few of the great 
Terns, or Tickets, are seen among them. I saw several of the great 
crested Grebes on the Hast Fen, called there Gaunts, and met with one of 
their floating nests with eggs in it. The lesser crested Grebe, the black 
and dusky Grebe, and the little Grebe, are also inhabitants of the fens ; 
together with Coots, Waterhens, spotted Waterhens, Water-rails, Ruffs, 
Redshanks, Lapwings or Wipes, Red-breasted Godwits and Whimbrels. 
The Godwits breed near Washenbrough ; the Whimbrels only appear for 
about a fortnight in May near Spalding, and then quit the country. 
Opposite to Fossdyke Wash, during the summer, are great numbers of 
Avosettas, called there Yelpers, from their cry. They hover over the sports- 
man’s head like the Lapwing, and fly with their necks and legs extended. 
* «British Zoology,’ ii., No. 279. 
