Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/468

440 for dinner. From the same source Prof. Newton learned that the Herons, now nesting at Didlington, formerly resorted to the sallow bushes and sedges in Hockwold and Feltwell Fens for that purpose, a mode of nesting which they also had recourse to in times past in certain of the reed-beds of the Broads. Redshanks and Ruffs of course abounded, and lingered as long as there were suitable feeding grounds, and even returned in 1853, as Prof. Newton has told us in his interesting paper (vide infra), after the great flood had temporarily restored the Fen somewhat to its former condition. Ducks, as may be imagined, were very abundant, and there were Decoys at Stow Bardolph, Hilgay, Methwold, Hockwold, and Lakenheath, where immense numbers of Shovellers, Pintails, Pochards, Gadwals, Wigeon, Teal, and Mallards were taken. A man named Wilson, generally known as 'Old Ducks,' was a great slaughterer of fowl at a Decoy on Methwold 'Severals,' but one Williams, at the Lakenheath Decoy, seems to have been even more successful still.

"The glory of the Fens were the various species of Harrier; these birds must have been especially abundant there, as they were also in the Broad district on the other side of the county. At Poppelot so numerous were they that it is even said the fenmen amused themselves on a Sunday, at a public-house in the centre of the Sedge Fen, by pelting each other with their eggs! Now both the Sedge Fen and the birds which used to inhabit it are gone, but it is remarkable how tenaciously the Harriers held on; constant persecution, however, was too much for them, and first the Marsh Harrier (always far less numerous than the other two species), then the Hen Harrier, and finally Montagu's Harrier, disappeared—the latter most reluctantly, for a long time clinging to one or two favoured spots, but now, I fear, quite restricted to the north-east portion of the county, where a pair or two of this and the Marsh Harrier may still be found in most years; but the Hen Harrier is exceedingly rare. The same fate awaited the Short-eared Owl, which followed in the wake of the Harriers. Another bird common in the Fens was the Grasshopper Warbler, or 'Reeler' as it was called by the sedge-cutters; and yet another, a rarity of the first water, Savi's Warbler, was found breeding at Poppelot.

"Speaking of the Fenland, which lies in the valley of the