INTRODUCTION. liii 



year, the pebble-paved nests of this pretty little bird — 

 for the materials of which they are composed are so 

 lasting that their traces are visible for months. Nor 

 does the Lapwing fail to enliven the scene, though its 

 numbers have decreased of late years most remarkably. 

 Wild Geese — for the most part, probably, the Pink- 

 footed species (Anser hrachyrhynchusj — were formerly 

 abundant in winter time, but the spread of plantations 

 which first restricted the limits of the Bustard seems to 

 have acted in like manner towards them, and their 

 number is now probably not one-fiftieth of that which 

 used to resort to the district of the " brecks." 



From this threnody over a vanished or vanishing 

 fauna, it is pleasant to turn to the new one which has 

 now succeeded it, and which still retains some traces of 

 the bygone order of things. Nightingales (Philomela 

 luscinia), Blackcaps (Curruca atricapillaj, and Willow 

 Wrens (Sylvia trocJiilus) — the last in number, hardly, 

 perhaps, exceeded in any other part of England, throng 

 the plantations which have driven away the Bustard and 

 the Wild Goose, singing and making merry in their 

 abandoned haunts. The restless Titmice wander among 

 the branches, industriously searching for their living. 

 The glad voice of the Chaffinch, and the less melodious 

 twitter of the Redpoll, resound through the larch 

 '^ slips," and the attentive observer by the side of the 

 sombre Scotch firs recognizes the musical warble of the 

 Wood-Lark (Alauda arhoreaj, mingling with the more 

 attractive song of his more aspiring cousin the Sky- 

 Lark. The Green Woodpecker (Picus viridisj laughs 

 cheerfully among the trees of older growth, and a pair 

 of Ravens (Gorvus coraxj from the adjoining county — ■ 

 the sole survivors, perhaps, of their race for many miles 

 around — extend their beat to the southern limits of the 

 district, and seem by their hoarse croak to threaten 

 those who have changed the entire aspect of nature so 



