NATURE 



193 



N' 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 18S6 



BABINGTON'S "BIRDS OF SUFFOLK" 

 Catalogue of the Birds of Suffolk; with an Introduction 

 and Remarks on their Distribution. By Churchill 

 Babington, D.D., &c. Reprinted from the Proceedings 

 of the Suffolk Institute of Archreology and Natural 

 History. 8vo, pp. 281. Map and 7 Plates. (London: 

 Van Voorst, 1884-86.) 

 'UMEROUS as have lately been contributions to 

 local British ornithology, the treatment of the 

 subject is very far from being exhausted, and Dr. 

 Babington's book is extremely welcome as supplying a 

 new catalogue of the birds of a county having so favour- 

 able a situation as Suffolk. For though wanting the 

 extended sea-board of one neighbour, Norfolk, which 

 meets the uninterrupted roll of the polar waves, and pos- 

 sessing an almost even coast-line, very unlike the irregular 

 contour of its other neighbour, Essex, Suffolk yet contains 

 the most easterly point of England in Lowestoft Ness, as 

 it is still fondly called, though a " ness " is there as hard 

 to recognise in these days as is the " bay " of its historic 

 Solebay, a few miles further south. Suffolk also is not 

 without its '' broads " — at Fritton, Oulton, Benacre, and 

 Easton — insignificant as they may be in comparison with 

 those of the northern half of the ancient East Anglian 

 kingdom. It also shares with Norfolk the great Breydon 

 Water, and with Essex the wide mouth of the Stour, 

 while it has for its own the estuaries of the Blythe, the 

 Aide, the Debden, and the Orwell, by no means despic- 

 able, even if they are not equal in size to those of the 

 Colne, the Blackwater, and the Crouch, that drain so 

 much of Essex. Suftblk again has a natural feature, 

 the like of which is not possessed by either of its 

 neighbours : — 



" On Orfordness lies many a stone, 

 But Dungeness has ten for one," 



says the old adage,and it is not until the south-eastern corner 

 of Kent is reached that a similar " beach " is presented, 

 and that one only to be surpassed by the Chesil Bank of 

 Dorset. Highly cultivated, too, as now is almost every 

 acre in Suffolk that will repay cultivation, there are still 

 some wide tracts along its eastern border, and again 

 towards its north-western extremity, which, if indeed they 

 have ever been under the plough, have long since lapsed 

 ■nto an approach to their original condition, and are over- 

 grown with heather and gorse, or form " brecks," kept, by 

 the teeth of countless sheep and rabbits, in the state of 

 the poet's " smooth- shaven green." The western limits 

 of the county not only bound, but slope into, the great 

 Fen district, that spreads for miles and miles in an almost 

 level plain towards the Wash. The chief part of Suffolk 

 has long been inclosed, presenting, in the absence of any 

 but the most inconsiderable elevations, a very uniform 

 appearance ; and, were it not for its numerous woods — 

 not many of which are really ancient — and plantations, 

 would afford harbour to few but the commonest of birds. 

 An indefinite district, the soil of which is of the stififest 

 clay, is colloquially named " High Suffolk"; but where 

 it begins or ends, no one knows ; and, for some mys- 

 VOL. XXXV. — No. 896 



terious reason, nobody will own to living in it. " High 

 Suffolk" always begins in the next parish, or the next 

 parish but one ! A great contrast to these heavy lands is 

 presented by the " breck " district already mentioned, 

 where the chalk-formation comes nearly to the sur- 

 face, and is only overlain by a few inches of the 

 lightest sand — so light, indeed, that some places 

 may be found as bare of vegetation as is a 

 real desert — every particle of fertilising matter having 

 been blown away by the wind after a spell of dry 

 weather ; and it will be remembered that in East Anglia 

 the rainfall is less than in any other part of England. 

 This district still retains, in at least one of its birds, in 

 some of its insects, and in a few of its plants, indications 

 of having been once— and that perhaps not so very long 

 ago— a littoral, an arm of the sea having doubtless 

 reached its low hills, and in after times retreating, having 

 left these survivors who still hold their ground. But here 

 we may say that we cannot for a moment subscribe to the 

 opinion to which Dr. Babington gives currency (p. 123), 

 though not saying whether he himself shares it, that the 

 marine connexion was by '" a broad estuary running from 

 the South Suffolk coast between Bury St. Edmund's and 

 Stowmarket through Thetford." So far as we are aware, 

 there is no evidence in favour of such a violent supposi- 

 tion, and much against it. On the other hand, a very 

 slight depression of the surface would once more 

 bring the sea from the Wash up to Brandon, if not to 

 Thetford. 



We make no attempt to trace the deeper effects of 

 geological formations and changes ; but all these super- 

 ficial characters, here so briefly sketched, combined with 

 the geographical situation of the county, will serve to 

 show why Suffolk should present a field of great interest 

 to the ornithologist ; its varied features offering suitable 

 accommodation for many kinds of birds of diverse habits, 

 and its eastward position a sanctuary where the wings of 

 many a weary wanderer from afar may be folded at rest. 

 There is the more need to urge the importance of these 

 favourable circumstances, because they cannot be said to 

 be too prominently laid before his readers by Dr. 

 Babington, who perhaps through modesty, or perhaps 

 through prudence (in which latter case he is certainly to 

 be commended), abstains from setting forth the advan- 

 tageous conditions of existence that the county of his 

 adoption thus affords, albeit he devotes a few pages (258- 

 268), which might well have been more, to the subject. 



In computing the birds of a circumscribed area, it is 

 always a difiicult task to decide whether the adventitious 

 strangers whom the accidents of tra\el may have driven 

 upon its coast should be enumerated among its real in- 

 habitants, for there is really much to be said on both 

 sides of the question. At first sight it seems most absurd 

 that, granting even there is no reasonable probability of 

 its importation, the stray example of an exotic species, 

 whose home may perhaps be in the further wastes of 

 Northern Asia or the wilds of Arctic America, should be 

 enrolled as a " British bird," because it has had the ill- 

 luck to find its way hither and be killed — secundum 

 usum Anglicanum — within the confines of the United 

 Kingdom ; but almost , immemorial practice may be 

 pleaded for this view of the case, and we are not minded 

 to place on record a distinct decision against the claims 



