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Notv the facilities of transit, both for passengers and merchandise, 
are so great, that the prices of produce are equalised throughout 
the kingdom, and any local attraction draws hosts of tourists to 
the spot. The wild cliffs and headlands which protect our island 
home from the ravages of the ocean are no longer the remote 
regions they formerly were, the radway brought them close to 
the great centres of “ civilization,” and man, the destroyer, soon 
found fresh material for the exercise of his avocation. Until the 
recent passing of the “ Sea-birds Protection Bill ” put a stop to 
such practices, excursion trains were run to certain parts of our 
coast, where during the breeding season multitudes of gulls and 
auks are known to congregate, conveying large numhers of so- 
called “ sportsmen,” who, thoughtless of the cruelty and mischief 
they were perpetrating, slaughtered them without mercy, leaving 
their callow young to die of starvation ! Every humane man, even 
though he have not the love for those harmless and beautiful birds, 
which a study of their habits is certain to inspire, must rejoice 
that a stop has been put to tliis wasteful destruction of God’s 
creatures. 
One more glance, and that a very brief one, at the feathered 
population of our county. Another 150 years have jjassed, and 
the Eev. Eichard Lubbock gives us his “ Observations on the 
Fauna of Norfolk,” a book of which it is impossible to speak too 
highly, and which, fortunately, is well known to most of us. It 
gives such a picture of the Broad district as almost makes one 
long for a return of the past ; from its careful perusal we arrive 
(to quote kL'. Stevenson) at the “ startling conclusion,” that with, 
the exception of the spoonbill and the cormorant, the same species 
found nesting here in 1671 were still residents up to the close of 
the present century. 
During a period of 150 years, two species only has ceased to 
breed in Norfolk, but in the fifty years which have since elapsed, 
no less than six species have entirely deserted us during the breed- 
ing season, viz. ; — the peregrine falcon, kite, common buzzard, 
bustard, avocet, and black-tailed godwit ; five other species have 
virtually ceased to breed here, namely : — the hen and Montagu’s 
liarriers, short-eared owl, bittern, and black tern, only a pair or 
two of which, from time to time and at uncertain intervals, return 
to their former homes. Several other species are rapidly dis- 
