Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/380

352 is kept up in select spots when heavy rains or some breakage in the river's bank have flooded a few acres.

Having tramped these fens almost daily during the past twenty years, and during the shooting months with a gun for a companion, and having an eye upon the wondrous works of nature, it may prove interesting to the readers of 'The Zoologist' to learn something of my observations during that period. In particular, I, like many, most deeply regret the decrease in several species of our breeding birds.

I will now give a list of the birds which still breed on the fens here; this will not include the broads, where several other species continue to nest, though in diminished numbers. We number Heron, Wild Duck, Teal, Dabchick, Moorhen, Lapwing, Redshank, Common Snipe, Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting, Kingfisher, Sky Lark, Meadow Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Pheasant, Partridge, and Red-legged Partridge.

—There is a Heronry within a short distance of my home, and the birds seem to be fairly numerous throughout the district. Many are daily fishing in the ditches, which abound with Jack, Roach, Tench, Bream, and Perch in plenty, but Eels are scarcer every year, the Heron playing a great part toward diminishing the same. Many a tussle have I witnessed between Heron and Eel. In 1894 I counted twenty-six Herons on a twenty-acre marsh going through a toilet of wing preening, &c.; most of these were young birds. Fortunately for the Heron he is not a table bird, otherwise he might not survive here in such plenty. Specimens of both the Purple and Night Herons have been shot in the locality.

—With the common Wild Duck I note a great falling off during the breeding season. In the early days of my observations it was not an uncommon occurrence to stumble across half a dozen clutches of young Ducks whilst tramping across the fens during the month of June. A few couples still breed here, and recently I flushed four in one lot and seven in another at sunrise and sunset. Little parties ranging up to ten in number may be seen tacking about the fens. In a wood not a mile from my home a Wild Duck successfully hatched a family several years in succession on the topmost branch of an oak tree.