Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/381

Rh —A few pairs of Teal annually breed here, and I always flush some of the birds from the ditches during the months of August and September.

—A few Dabchicks still remain in the locality, nesting on the Waveney, but I note a great decrease in this species.

—The Moorhen appears to be a very uncertain breeder in this neighbourhood. In the year 1885 scores of these birds nested in the district, and although some hundreds of eggs were taken, wherever one went the little black fluffy young could be seen, while the call of the mother birds and the weep of the young ones could be heard all over the fens. These diminished yearly till none were left. In 1894 we had another inrush, the ditches seemed alive with them, and whilst walking across the fens one morning I counted thirty nests containing eggs. Last year I only saw six nests, and this season I have not noticed one.

—Twenty years ago the Lapwings which nested with us were almost countless, now not one remains. The year 1894 saw the last three couples topple and twist over the old familiar breeding-grounds. What few remain are driven, mainly through steam drainage, to the Suffolk side of the Waveney, where the marsh is yet suitable for them, between the river and the Herringfleet Hills. Owing to the long drought, the land is now almost as hard as rock. The young Lapwings are thus seeking their sustenance by the water's edge at the ditches. A Lapwing—and we suppose it was the same bird—laid white eggs on the same marsh several years in succession.

—Redshanks, like the Lapwings, have entirely forsaken the old haunts; fifteen years ago, many couples of these birds nested on the rushy marshes at the foot of the uplands, quite two miles from the river. Just ten years ago the last couple nested there, and in 1894 the last of the Redshanks nested on the Norfolk side of the Waveney. In early spring by the river side it is not uncommon to witness twenty Redshanks in one flock before they pair for nesting. I have noticed this species on the fens in almost every month of the year, and in 1894 I saw one on Christmas Day.

—Few Snipe breed with us now,—I have not heard of a nest being found during the past five years. Some, however, lay on the Herringfleet Rands on the Suffolk side with the