FEN VERSUS MARSH. 439 



less in still earlier times, when the land was forest clad and in- 

 habited by the Wolf, the Wild Boar, and the Beaver; whilst giant 

 Stags and herds of fierce Urus roamed its glades, and Cranes and 

 Pelicans made their homes in its fastnesses. The trees have 

 been swallowed up by the growing peat, which has also preserved 

 the remains of its vanished fauna. One little spot, however — at 

 Wicken, in Cambridgeshire — no doubt fairly represents one of 

 the aspects of the Fen before modern draining and cultivation 

 had destroyed for ever its former characteristics ; here unbroken 

 tracts of Sedge, Cladium mariscus, clothe the wet soil, and the 

 dead level is only relieved by an occasional clump of dwarf 

 sallows ; the effect, however, is destroyed even here by the 'loads' 

 which convey the water to the draining mill, the tall chimney of 

 which may be seen in the distance. 



" The fauna and flora of this district must have been excep- 

 tionally interesting ; of the latter, doubtless, a fairly accurate 

 conception can be formed, but of the former we have few in- 

 dications. Whether the Crane ever bred in the Norfolk Fens in 

 historic times is uncertain, but seems probable;* it appears, 

 however, to have been by no means a rare species.f I think 

 there can be no doubt the Greylag Goose was formerly a regular 

 breeder in this county, as well as in the Fens of Cambridgeshire 

 and Lincolnshire,! but when we come to the Bittern, there is no 

 doubt on the subject ; till their haunts were destroyed they were 

 extremely plentiful, especially about Poppelot ; but now this 

 characteristic denizen of the Fens no longer 



1 Undulates her note 

 Like a deep-mouthed bassoon.' 



Its former haunts know it no more ; but a man from that neigh- 

 bourhood, with whom Prof. Newton conversed in 1853, assured 

 him that his uncle had killed five Bitterns in one day's shooting, 

 and that his grandfather used to have one roasted every Sunday 



* See 'Birds of Norfolk,' vol. ii. p. 125. 



f The Le Stranges of Hunstanton, entertaining the prior of Coxford, Sir 

 Henry Sharbourne, and others, in the year 1520, dined off a Crane, six 

 Plovers, and a brace of Rabbits. This bird is mentioned in the • Household 

 Book' five times, and is valued at precisely the same sum as the Curlew, 

 varying from 4d. to 6d. 



J Op. cit. vol. iii. p. 3. 



2h2 



