INTRODUCTION, 



TTEREFORDSHIRE still affords a rich field for the study of 

 Ornithology. The whole county forms a pastoral oasis of 

 hill and dale, well-wooded and well-watered, filled with meadows 

 and orchards, in the midst of a wild waste of hills of considerable 

 height and of great extent. 



To the south and south-west are the Forest of Dean, the 

 Monmouthshire Hills, and the Black Mountains : to the north-west 

 lie the wide ranges of hills, which beginning in Radnorshire and 

 Breconshire, stretch onwards to the sea : on the north, where the 

 hills within the county are wilder and more desolate, they are 

 contiguous with those of Radnorshire and Shropshire : while the 

 eastern side is bounded by a bleak open country, and the long 

 range of the Malvern Hills. 



So late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth there were four Royal 

 Forests in Herefordshire. For the southern district the Forest of 

 Ewyas stretched over the Hatteral Hills to the Black Mountains : 

 in the northern part of the county was the Forest of Deerfold (see 

 Woolhope Transactions, 1869) not far off from the wooded and 

 romantic heights of the High Vinnall, Bringwood Chase and 

 Mocktree, Harley's Mountain and a wide tract of neighbouring 

 hills, mostly clothed with wood. In the centre of the county, 

 the Royal Forests of Aconbury and of Haywood (see Woolhope 

 Transactions, for 1870) united with each other in forming one large 

 tract of woodland, greatly extended across the river Wye by the 

 bleak Woolhope district, reaching almost to the foot of the Ledbury 

 and Malvern Hills. 



Many woods remain, which were once included in these forests ; 



