FAUNA OF THE BROADS.
I cannot do more than cursorily mention the abundant life which teems amid the Broads. I would refer the reader, for a full account of the life of the Broads thirty years ago and now, to that charming book, worthy to be ranked with “The Complete Angler,” and “The Natural History of Selborne,” “Observations on the Fauna of Norfolk, and more particularly on the District of the Broads,” by the Rev. Richard Lubbock, M.A., a new edition of which, with suitable notes by Mr. Thomas Southwell, has lately been issued by Messrs. Jarrold and Sons, London and Norwich. This book, together with Stevenson’s “Birds of Norfolk,” are necessary companions to the ornithologist on the Broads. For a fuller general descriptive account of the district, I may also refer the reader to my own larger book, “Norfolk Broads and Rivers,” published by Blackwood.
Of course, water-fowl predominate. The heron, the great-crested grebe, the coot and water-hen are constantly to be seen. Dabchicks abound in places. I have seen a score together in some open water, at Surlingham, during a frost. Kingfishers are seen occasionally; water-ouzels never in the navigable waters. Wild ducks, widgeon, teal, and other ducks, gulls, terns, and waders of many species, hawks, kestrels, marsh harriers, and hen harriers are occasionally met with, particularly about Hickling. Owls, reed wrens, reed buntings, and bearded tits (I know a colony of the latter), and other birds occur to me as I write, but detailed lists of the Norfolk species will be found in the “Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society” of past years. It is sufficient to say that not only in the department of ornithology, but of entomology and botany, the specialist will find abundant work. During the days and nights I have spent in the more secluded parts of the waters, and particularly in the very early hours after daybreak, I have watched the habits of certain rare species, and discovered their haunts, which I would not reveal for anything, for to do so would be to expose them to the ravages of collectors. I am not a collector myself, nor have I the remotest pretension to science, but I am an enthusiastic student of what I may call the “home-life” of birds and animals. Therefore I cannot give accurate scientific information, in the shape of lists of Broad species without borrowing from the labours of others, and the clothing the dry bones with flesh would require more space than a guide-book will allow. But let a man lie in a boat, amid the reeds, for an hour of the silvery dawn, and watch a pair of great-crested grebes, feeding their young ones with small fish, and teaching them to dive and catch fish also, all so close that you might at times touch the birds with a fishing-rod, and he will partly understand what to me is the charm of Natural History. And for the romance of it there is no place like the reed-surrounded Broad and its marshy borders.