568 PROFESSOR NEWTON ON THE GREAT FLOOD OF 1852-3. 
of June, we again saw the Harriers and Gulls as before, and with 
this day ended our experience of the whole affair. 
I have already incidentally mentioned that the effect of this 
flood in attracting birds to the neighbourhood was perceptible at 
some distance, but it must be remembered that the whole country 
was, so to speak, saturated during that autumn and winter. Even 
so late as the 4tli of June much of the low part of Wangford 
Warren, to the eastward of the Brandon and Barton-Mills road, was 
under water, and on that day my brother and I saw a Redshank on 
that warren close to the mere on the Brandon boundary * which 
by its actions showed that it had young — one, indeed, of which 
I myself heard, though we failed to find more than their foot-prints 
on the wet mud. That a Redshank should breed on that ground 
was a thing wholly unexpected by us, and to the best of my 
belief, a thing quite unknown to the warrener to have happened 
for many years before. 
To sum up, I may remark first, that the ordinary and, in modern 
days, scanty bird-population of the Fens was, for a time, banished by 
the flood, its place being taken by species which had not been seen 
there for very many years ; and next, that some of these species — 
as the Redshank, the Black Tern, and the Black-headed Gull — 
which had not been known to breed in the district for a long while, 
were tempted by the restoration of an old condition of things, to 
essay the occupation of their ancient homes, and the rearing of 
progeny. That their attempt would fail was manifest from the 
beginning, for the farmers could not be expected to put up with the 
loss of their crops, and the draining of the flood was only 
a question of time. Personally, I cannot be otherwise than 
grateful for having seen its different phases, as thereby I can the 
better imagine what the early state of the Fen-country must have 
been like, however great be the difference between the scenes 
presented to my eyes, and those described by Pennant or the author 
of the Liber Eliensis — with neither of which can the preceding 
account be compared except unfavourably. 
* This is the mere on which, in former days, Black -headed Gulls used 
habitually to breed (see Stevensou and Southwell, ‘Birds of Norfolk,’ 
vol. iii. p. 323, note). They attempted to breed in the same year also on 
Wretham and Itoudham Heaths (tom. cit. p. 326), but I think did not succeed 
in doing so. 
