XVI. THE BIRDS OF KENT 



teresting ornithologically : first, the tertiary deposits ; 

 these consists of the Woolwich beds and the London 

 clay. The Woolwich beds cover a considerable tract of 

 country in the north-west of the county from Deptford 

 to Plumstead, and from Croydon to the Grays ; these 

 deposits consist of a sandy, gravelly soil, and form an 

 undulating, well-timbered country, which before it was 

 turned into a suburban district was, no doubt, a very 

 pleasing country. It has been said that the county 

 obtained its name of the Garden of England from the 

 charm and fruitfulness of this district, but now it is all 

 changed and can be pleasing only to the lovers of the 

 villaesque. Still, birds do not seem to have forsaken it. 

 A recent writer in a daily paper states that during the 

 last few years he has noted no less than seventy-seven 

 species in this thickly-populated part of the county, 

 mentioning among them a Nightingale singing at Plum- 

 stead. Birds we know from London (Wood Pigeons 

 and Gulls), if not persecuted, do not mind bricks and 

 mortar, and in the large gardens and enclosed grounds 

 and paddocks which surround the large houses, nu- 

 merous throughout the district, they would find many 

 congenial retreats. 



It was here, on Bexley Heath, that the Dartford 

 Warbler was first observed in 1773. The London clay 

 is the chief tertiary deposit in the county ; it lies in 

 patches by the river side from Plumstead to Gravesend, 

 but below that town it covers a wide tract, including the 

 Hundred of Hoo and the Isles of Grain and Sheppey. 

 This marshy, low-lying tract between the two rivers, the 

 Thames and Medway, is frequented by many wild fowl 

 and shore birds, many making it their summer resort, 

 and among them there is a colony of Little Terns. 



