530 
president’s address. 
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 Professor Newton 
has told us in his interesting paper ( vide infra), after the 
great flood had temporarily restored the Pen somewhat to its 
former condition. Ducks, as may be imagined, were very abundant, 
and there were Decoys at Stow Bardolph, Iiilgay, Methwold, 
Hockwold, and Lalcenheath, where immense numbers of Shovellers, 
Pintails, Pochards, Gadwals, Wigeon, Teal, and Mallards were 
taken. A man named Wilson, generally known as “Old Ducks,” 
was a great slaughterer of fowl, at a Decoy on Methwold “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 public- house 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 iinally 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 Grass-hopper Warbler, or “ Reeler,” as it was 
called by the Sedge-cutters ; and yet another, a rarity of the lirst 
water, Savi’s Warbler, was found breeding at Poppelot. 
Speaking of the Fenland, which lies in the valley of the Ouse, 
Spelman says : “ All these parts often suffer loss from the river 
