NORFOLK. 
fecundity, which is proverbial, but alfo by the  congeniality 
of the foil with their peculiar habits. So prolific are 
that it is with difficulty, in fome places, that they are kept 
from increafing to an alarming extent, as anciently they did, 
The meers and marfhes of Norfolk are alfo much fre- 
quented by woodcocks, widgeon, teal, ducks, and other 
aquatic fowl. But among the curious birds, either refidents 
or occafional vifitors of Norfolk, that which moft deferves 
rdi, o 
largeft of the Britifh land-fowl ; the male bird on an average 
weighing, according to Pennant, twenty- -five pounds, and 
expands : wings nine feet in breadth; its length is about 
our. lly inhabits the heath-lands and moors. 
ey ae sp emcenl to the northward, in the wold of * 
The 
Yorkfhire, and fouthward on Salifbury Plain, in Wiltthire, 
and on the deana of Dorfetfhire. Some are found on the 
weftern fide of this county. ey are very thy birds, 
e ftrix Ga curtatus, or oy a eared, long-winged owl, 
is an occafional vifitant of this county. This fingular bird 
is generally fond of uninhabited places, has been obferved 
to frequent the hill of Hay, and other elevated {pots in 
the Orkney ifles. It does not, like others of the fame tribe, 
alight on trees; but lies under lonz grafs or ftubble, where 
it fits sea compofedly at the perfon who attempts to 
difturb him. Like the hawk, he fies to feek his food by 
da He | is a bird of paflage, and migrates about the fame 
time as the woodeack, travelling northwards towards the 
Shetland and thence to Norway. 
The co s cornix, or hooded crow, commonly called the 
Royfton. crow, from the number aes frequent the vicinity 
of ad town of that name in Cambridgefhire, is frequently 
an unwelcome vifitant of the marfhes. This fpecies is more 
aaivous than any other of the genus. 
That fingular and proteus-like {pecies of the fand-piper, 
the tringa pugnax, is found in this county. e males are 
called rufs, and the cae reeves ; both are diflinguifhed 
by a tuft of feathers on the back of their necks, by which 
they may be difcriminated from all other birds. 
Environed by a great extent of fea-coaft, abounding in 
rivers and ftreams, accompanie 
he py cornua, called a 
ruffe 3 whic ains has Latinized into afpredo. It is 
{maller and more flender than the common perch, and feldom 
12 
mences in ce mber. 
at w hich time vaft quantitres are ee cured oe pickling 
or drying, and exported to diftant places. Of this fifhery 
re account will be given in the fubfequent hiftory of 
Yarmouth. 
rals, Foffls, &c.—Few parts of the kingdom are 
fo dev. oid of {ubterraneous treafures as Norfolk. No mine- 
ral or foffil fubftances have been found fufficient to excite 
a mining fpirit ; n us of that invaluable fubftance, coal ; 
nor any extent of ftratification of ufeful ftone. The fu be 
ftrata of the county, as far as refeatches have difcovered, 
confift of clunch, Te in which flints are imbedded, 
gault, gravel, fand, filt, and peat earth. 
heath, and in fom pooner places, there is expan nfive 
Rewari of clunch, or SS chalk, ae h is ufed for 
walls, and burnt for lim t appears to have been formerly 
applied in buildings, pation — coignes, mullions, and 
tracery of windows ; d for fepuichra 
alabafter and marble. 
Norwich abound with thofe large beautifu 
which compofe the walls of many buildings in that city ; 
and the deep pits on Moufehold-heath are probably the 
places whence they were dug. Inthe gautt, or argillaceous 
ftrata, has been found a clay which manutactures imto an 
excellent kind of earthen-ware. Brick-clay abounds in 
various places, and, with fand, forms bricks of equal quality 
to thofe e metropolis. 
yo 
m, at in water, is the ap- 
rotten, that they may 
lie in a black mafs of vegetable fibres, ae of decayed 
ie aachos: leaves, rufhes, flags, &c. nt of this 
once fylvan tract mutt have “been great from. what is dif- 
agate ; and at high water, now covered by the tides, 1s 
in one {pot from five to fix hurdred acres. No hint of 
the manner or the tine in which this fubmerfion happened 
can be traced. Nothing lke a bog is near, and the whole 
beach befides is c¢ pote ofa fine ooze, OF marine cla ys 
crops e mode cf cuitiva ‘ing the arable lands is worthy 
of general i ral pa wherever it can be adopted. plough, 
which is of an ble conftruétion,’ is drawn by two horfes 
harneffed er a am theile are gui 
holds the plough. Inftead of working the animals feven or 
eight hours, without drawing the bit, as is the cuftom in 
fome 
