XX INTRODUCTION. 



and it stands to reason, that when the surfaces of the northern coun- 

 tries — as Lapland, Sweden, Norway, and parts of Russia — are 

 deeply buried in snow, wild-geese, and such fowl as feed inland, are 

 compelled to mig-rate to more genial climates; and England-^a 

 salubrious island — situated as she is in the direct track of the 

 myriads of migratory birds from the hyperborean latitudes, offers the 

 first, the fairest, and most inviting retreat to those aerial emigrants. 



Few but those who have seen them, would believe in the immense 

 flights of wild-fowl which in severe winters visit our coasts — flights 

 which, when they have alighted, cover acres of water. It is their 

 numbers by day, and their noise by night, which astonish those who 

 for the first time experience them. But the sportsman and decoyer 

 complain of a great decline in the sport, of late years -, though this 

 is, in a measure, to be accounted for by the succession of mild 

 winters ', so that nothing like the success of good old times has at- 

 tended their pursuits. Nevertheless, in further proof of the assertion 

 that " the sport is good as ever, in hard winters," we may refer to a 

 still more subsequent season — that of 1854-5, which was the hardest 

 winter on record since 1846-7 ; and we find the sport in no way in- 

 ferior to that of former years, when the season has been of about 

 equal severity, with similar duration of frost. 



However, we cannot help looking back with regret on the mischief 

 done to our sport by the drainage of fens, swamps, and moors. Such 

 places, in their wild and uncultivated state, were the very nurseries 

 where hundreds of wild-fowl were annually hatched and reared; more 

 particularly the fens about the eastern coast, which, from the fa- 

 voured position they stand to the Netherlands, were always the first 

 resting-place of wild-fowl, after crossing the sea; and thus became 

 the very haunt and refuge of immense flights of aquatic fowl : and 

 to this day, the few remaining fens which have been undisturbed by 

 the arm of cultivation, are their best and last strongholds. There are 

 also still remaining, several i)rivate preserves for water-fowl, where 

 the wild-duck lays her eggs and rears her nestlings in imdisturbed 

 security. 



