21 
marsh harrier, which both bred here in considerable numbers, are 
all he enumerates — wo might s<afely add the hen harrier, Montagu’s 
harrier (not tlien recognized as a species,) peregrine folcon, hobby, 
sparrow-hawk, kestrel, and short-eared owl. Of the fen birds, 
ruffs abounded in marshland, as also in the marshes between 
Norwich and Yarmouth; the avocet and cormorant bred here, 
the latter upon trees, whilst the shovelard or spoonbill had 
but recently ceased to do so, and the shelducks “ herded in coney- 
burrows about Norrold and other places.” Starlings, then as now, 
made the reed-beds their roosting i)laces, and “ settled in innu- 
merable numbers in a small compass.” The black-headed gull had 
its home at Scoulton Mere, and “ in such plenty about Horsey, 
that they sometimes bring them in carts to Norwich, and sell them 
at small rates, and the country i)eople make use of their eggs in 
puddings.” 
I he moorhen and coot of course abounded, the stork was 
sometimes seen, the great crested grebe came in April to breed in 
the Broad waters, “ so making their nest on the water that their 
seldom dry while they arc set on ; ” ■with di'V''ers other 
sort ot “ dive-foul.’’ “ Teals,” he says, “ were in scarce any place 
more abounding. I he condition of the country, and the very many 
decoys, especially between Norwich and the sea, making this place 
much to abound in wild-fowl.” I will not tire you by enumerat- 
ing all the birds mentioned as inhabiting the marsh districts at 
that time, but have given the most important, and will conclude 
by naming a few of those inhabiting the Avooded districts The 
green and pied woodpeckers, the nuthatch and wryneck, the latter 
“ marvellously subject to vertigo and sometimes taken in those 
fits, the hoopoe, the crossbill, which “ comes about the beginning 
of summer,” the shrike, the goatsucker, goldfinch, &c., &c., and a 
roller, killed about Crestwick on 14 th IMay, 1664 . 
Things are greatly changed in all respects since the time of 
Avhich we have just been speaking ; within the last century (we 
are told) it is probable that a fourth part of England has been 
turned from a Avild into a garden. Then locomotion Avas uncertain 
and attended Avith great difficulty ; the land was unapproachable 
during several months in the year, and food has been suffered to rot in 
one place, when only a few miles off the supply fell short of the 
demand, so great aviis the difficulty of removing it : ( Macaulay. J 
