4 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



some elders and gnarled old hawthorns, which the 

 arid soil likewise supports, rather add to than 

 diminish the desolate charm of the country, and, 

 as I say, till fifty years ago there were no others. 

 Then, however, it occurred to landowners, or to 

 some local body or council, that sand ought to suit 

 firs, and now, as a consequence, there are numerous 

 plantations of the Scotch kind, with others of the 

 larch and spruce, or of all three mingled together. 



Thus, in the more immediate proximity of Ick- 

 lingham we have the warrens or sandy steppes, the 

 moorlands passing here and there into green seas 

 of bracken, the river, with a smaller stream that 

 runs into it, and these fir plantations, which are 

 diversified, sometimes, with oaks, beeches, and chest- 

 nuts, and amidst which an undergrowth of bush 

 and shrub has long since sprung up. Beyond, on 

 the one hand, there are the fenlands, and, on the 

 other, ordinary English country. In all these bits 

 there is something for a bird-lover to see, though, I 

 confess, I wish there was a great deal more. The 

 plantations perhaps give the greatest variety. Dark 

 and sombre spots these make upon the great steppes 

 or moors, looking black as night against the dusky 

 red of the wintry sky, after the sun has sunk. 

 In them one may sit silent, as the shadows fall, and 

 see the pheasants steal or the wood-pigeons sweep 

 to their roosting-trees, listening to the " mik, mik, 

 mik " of the blackbird, before he retires, the harsh 

 strident note of the mistle-thrush, or the still 

 harsher and more outrageous scolding of the field- 

 fare. Blackbirds utter a variety of notes whilst 

 waiting, as one may say, to roost. The last, or the 



