440 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



for dinner. From the same source Prof. Newton learned that 

 the Herons, now nesting at Didlington, formerly resorted to the 

 sallow bushes and sedges in Hockwold and Feltwell Fens for that 

 purpose, a mode of nesting which they also had recourse to in 

 times past in certain of the reed-beds of the Broads. Redshanks 

 and Ruffs of course abounded, and lingered as long as there were 

 suitable feeding grounds, and even returned in 1853, as Prof. 

 Newton has told us in his interesting paper (vide infra), after the 

 great flood had temporarily restored the Fen somewhat to its 

 former condition. Ducks, as may be imagined, were very abun- 

 dant, and there were Decoys at Stow Bardolph, Hilgay, Meth- 

 wold, Hockwold, and Lakenheath, where immense numbers of 

 Shovellers, Pintails, Pochards, Gadwals, Wigeon, Teal, and Mal- 

 lards were taken. A man named Wilson, generally known as 

 1 Old Ducks,' was a great slaughterer of fowl at a Decoy on Meth- 

 wold g Severals,' but one Williams, at the Lakenheath Decoy, 

 seems to have been even more successful still. 



" The glory of the Fens were the various species of Harrier ; 

 these birds must have been especially abundant there, as they 

 were also in the Broad district on the other side of the county. 

 At Poppelot so numerous were they that it is even said the fen- 

 men amused themselves on a Sunday, at a pubhVhouse in the 

 centre of the Sedge Fen, by pelting each other with their eggs ! 

 Now both the Sedge Fen and the birds which used to inhabit it 

 are gone, but it is remarkable how tenaciously the Harriers held 

 on ; constant persecution, however, was too much for them, and 

 first the Marsh Harrier (always far less numerous than the other 

 two species), then the Hen Harrier, and finally Montagu's Harrier, 

 disappeared — the latter most reluctantly, for a long time clinging 

 to one or two favoured spots, but now, I fear, quite restricted to 

 the north-east portion of the county, where a pair or two of this 

 and the Marsh Harrier may still be found in most years ; but the 

 Hen Harrier is exceedingly rare. The same fate awaited the 

 Short-eared Owl, which followed in the wake of the Harriers 

 Another bird common in the Fens was the Grasshopper Warbler, 

 or ' Reeler ' as it was called by the sedge-cutters ; and yet 

 another, a rarity of the first water, Savi's Warbler, was found 

 breeding at Poppelot. 



11 Speaking of the Fenland, which lies in the valley of the 





