Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/138

114 substantial foundation of thick sticks, and I think it is more cupshaped than a Rook's nest. A very few of these birds still keep to our river valleys, but before long they will be as extinct as the Raven. Mr. Caton Haigh tells me they are still abundant in Lincolnshire, as well as the Magpie, which is becoming very rare in Norfolk.

There is another class which is suffering greatly—I mean the marsh birds—which in the past have helped to render Norfolk Broads so attractive by their presence. This great diminution is no doubt in part due to the decreasing area of our Broads, most of which are gradually "growing up"; but still more owing to the number of river yachts and wherries which visit these attractive water-ways, and scare the birds, to say nothing of what has been done to compass their destruction by a well-known dealer in birds' eggs in the West of England.

It is now several years since the Reeve has bred in Norfolk, in fact, not since 1889, when, walking over "Rush-hills," I found the nest, and was near treading on the four eggs. The last appearance, or rather re-appearance, of these birds in any quantity was in 1893, when for some reason there was an unprecedented passage of waders of all sorts through Norfolk. On May 24th of that year my correspondent, the Rev. M.C. Bird, observed more than twenty Ruffs and Reeves at their old home, some of the males with fine frills, a sight neither he nor any other naturalist is likely to see again.

Coincident with the increase of the Shoveller, the Garganey Teal has become very rare, and the reason is not obvious. The marshman at Sutton has not known of a nest for some years, and I doubt if 1898 saw two nests hatched off in the whole Broad district; while there is no other spot in England where these birds breed. I remember when their eggs were not uncommon at Hickling, but now Mr. Bird's notes from time to time only mention the Garganey as a great rarity compared to the Shoveller, and generally seen in April. Mr. Bird has not been able to definitely ascertain whether any Garganeys have bred in the Hickling district since 1891.

Of another species, the Spotted Crake, formerly very characteristic of the Broads, Mr. Bird, in a recent letter, writes:—"Spotted Rails have not been nearly so frequent of late years;