WILD-FOWL ON HOLKHAM LAKE.
MR. COKE of Holkham, afterwards created Earl of Leicester, was wont to say that when he first acquired his Norfolk estate he used to see two rabbits quarrelling for one blade of grass. He left Holkham the model property of Norfolk, yet while improving its culture he did not diminish its attractiveness for game. Its woods, which he planted, and its fields, which he brought into cultivation, produce more pheasants and partridges than those of any domain in
England ; and the lake which he dug in Holkham Park is the most famous gathering place of wild-fowl even on the duck- frequented Norfolk coast. The lake lies in a gentle hollow, studded with ancient trees which probably stood in the original park of which the present domain is an extension. At the time of the writer's last visit the atmosphere of a dark winter's day played those strange tricks with the vision which occur even in our island, which Robert Bates, fresh from the Equator, termed "a sub-arctic region, under crepuscular skies." One of the trees appeared to be surrounded by a thick circle of crossed oak-fencing, such as is often placed round young trees, but is unnecessary as a protection for old timber. The writer drew the attention of an old wild-fowler who was his companion, to this object, but he also agreed that it was a crossed timber paling. A nearer approach showed that it was a serried clump of fallow does, standing in a circle with their heads pointing towards the circumference,—a living fence of some fifty deer grouped round the old oak-trunk. The head of the lake was then visible, clear of timber on every side, with the turf of the park running down to the water's edge. The surface was evidently covered with fowl, and the " whew—whew—whew " of the widgeon could be heard from every part of the water and of the adjacent slopes. But on the opposite aide, under some lofty trees at some distance from the water, were a number of dark objects, from eighty to a hundred, which we were unable to identify. Opinions varied as to whether these creatures were sheep or deer lying asleep. They proved to be a flock of Canada geese, which have been acclimatised at Holkham as they have been at Lord Suffield's park of Gunton, in the same county. The birds were by no means tame, but rose and flew into the lake. They regularly leave the water at certain hours, and fly into the marshes of "Holkham Meals," between the park and the sea, where they feed by day with the famous wild grey-geese of Holkham, and nest like wild-birds in the long line of sandhills which lies between Holkham Bay and Wells Harbour. A nearer view of the water showed the astonish- ing numbers of the indigenous wild-fowl there collected. The area of the lake is some thirty-four acres, but it is not fed by a stream, as in the case with most large ornamental waters, such as that at Blenheim, where the inflow of the River Gleam fills the lake-head with alluvial deposit, on which sedges and reeds make a natural refuge for fowl. The edge is as regular as that of the Long Water in Kensington Gardens, with grass cropped short by the grazing of the geese. Above lies the grey palace of Holkham Hall, and the outline of the water is as regular as that of the Italian windows in the facade of the house. Yet the fowl lie as thick as ducks upon a mill-pond, though the gulls hovering over the surface, or floating like white boats among the clacks, show that this is no home of half-domestic birds, but the chosen resort of fowl from the adjacent levels of the shallow northern sea. In rough and stormy weather, or long frosts, the true sea-ducks, —scoters, golden-eyes, tufted-ducks and goosanders, visit the lake. But in mild seasons, such as that of the present month, only mallards, widgeon, and teal, with black flocks of coots, cover the water. Occasionally a sea-eagle, fen-eagles " as they were called when they regularly visited the low countries of East Anglia, spends a few days in harrying the fowl ; but though a marsh-harrier was beating the " meals " below, none of the larger hawks had disturbed the quiet of the fowl. The number of the mallard and widgeon floating on the water was beyond counting ; but those sitting and sleeping on the eastern slope of turf were at least as numerous, the brilliant plumage of the mallard-drakes, and the bright red and white of the cock- widgeon, making a very gay appearance on the dull, rain- soaked turf. When disturbed, the whole company rose to their feet and ran towards the water, the duck and widgeon rising with a rush and clatter of wings, and pluuging into the centre of the water ; while the sooty coots, with the usual in- stinct of the rail family, ran till they reached the water's edge, and then launched themselves, in a black fleet, among the gay, parti-coloured ducks. While the latter remained upon the water, the coots swam rapidly to the opposite bank, and climbing out, once more composed themselves for their damp siesta on the grass, indifferent to the angry calling of the gulls, and the quacks and whistles of mallard and widgeon.
The heronry marks the most picturesque point of the lake shore. The birds have selected for their nesting-place a grove of the highest and best-grown timber in the park, mainly beeches of great height and beautiful proportions. In
the centre rises a fiat-topped beech towering above all its neighbours, and on the highest branches of this the "master nest" is fixed, visible for a great distance, and marking the site of the colony far across the rolling waves of grass and scattered timber. North of the heronry the lake contracts, and the timber on the west bank closes up into a continuous line of ancient trees, lining the slope with a misty background of grey stems, and covering the ground with russet beds of fallen leaf. On the opposite bank are tall groves of ilex and pine, separated from the native timber by the deep and narrow waters of the lake. These are mainly haunted by the tea), which seem to prefer the quiet and seclusion afforded by the screen of trees. Below this narrow gut the water once more widens into a broad sheet above the dam ; here the mallard collect in immense num- bers, covering the water, and crowding in lines and com- panies on the shore beneath the evergreen-trees. Though so wild and wary when once beyond the limits of the sanctuary, the birds are here almost as tame as those upon the ornamental waters of the London parks. They stream off from the bank as the visitor approaches, alighting on the water at a distance of fifty yards, and taking no further notice of the intrusion, though well within range of a gun. Where the ilex-grove ends, a bed of dried, rough grass fringes the water, through which a narrow-beaten track, made by foot-passengers and deer, runs to join the road across the dam. Something which was neither grass nor bushes blocked this track at the time of the writer's visit, apparently a dense growth of teazle-tops. A nearer view showed this to be a line of ducks' heads, all turned in one direction. The birds were standing on the path in a long line facing the water, the approach of the visitors having given the signal of "eyes left" to the whole regiment. Some five or six hundred mallard were soon afloat upon the water, while flight after flight of widgeon were seen passing over at a great height from the sea, to join those at the head of the lake.
The widgeon have not always frequented Holkham in such numbers. Formerly, a decoy at Longharn, the working of which was one of the amusements of Captain Marryat, the naval novelist, absorbed the greater number of the birds which did not spend the day out at sea. This decoy was closed in 1854, and since then the birds have repaired to Holkham. Mr. Alexander Napier, writing to Mr. Stevenson, the author of " The Birds of Norfolk," states that the widgeon do not begin to arrive until early in November, and then only in very small flocks. "The main body do not appear until well on in December, and then I should say that there are always more to be seen on the lake from the middle of January to the end of February than at any other time of the year ; but their movements are largely governed by the weather. If the weather be fine and open, they do not show so early, but sit out at sea." This has been the case in the present mild season, and great though the number is which may now be seen upon the lake, it does not represent a fifth part of the flock collected in the severe weather of the same date in 1895. Both wild-duck and widgeon leave the lake at night to feed in the vast stretch of creeks, samphire, salt-marshes, and half-reclaimed land which lends such strange beauty to the line of shore between Wells and Blakeney. In their choice of the hour of departure, these two species, so alike in form and in their habits when in security, exhibit one of those unexplained differences in degree of caution in the avoidance of danger, which is one of the puzzles of the sportsman-naturalist. The wild-duck leave at dusk, and nightly risk the chance of a shot from the "gunners" waiting on the marshes at flight time. The widgeon wait till dark, and, except on moonlight nights, seldom lose any of their number to the gun. As the fowlers are tramping home across the flats they hear the widgeon "like gales of wind" rushing high over the marshes; but the flocks are invisible, except when the moon is for a moment darkened by " a milk o' ducks" flitting across its beams in the winter sky.
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