xiv INTRODUCTION. 



Channel^ and contains the Isle known as Thorney Island. 

 It measures^ from Prinsted to the sea, about five miles, the 

 ■whole of this being, at low water, on both sides of its central 

 channel, a vast extent of muddy banks and flats, very 

 attractive to Waders and Seafowl in the summer, and in the 

 Avinter the resort of various Ducks and other birds. 



The many changes of the last half-century have greatly 

 interfered with ornithology in this county, as in others. 

 The whole of Sussex is now intersected with railways, not 

 only inland but along the coast, nearly the whole of what 

 may be called the maritime district being traversed by a 

 line of rails extending from Brighton to the extreme w^estcrn 

 limit of the county, the whistle of the steam-engine taking 

 the place of that of the Wildfowl and the AYader. The 

 estuaries, formerly abounding in these species, are now far 

 more disturbed by traffic than they used to be; and much 

 of the marsh-land has been brought under cultivation. The 

 last of the grand morasses of the western division, the 

 Amberley Wildbrook, is converted into so-called smiling 

 meadows, re-echoing with the lowing of cattle instead of 

 the hollow boom of the Bittern and the croak of the Heron. 

 The Downs too, once the peaceful haunt of the Bustard and 

 the Lapwing, or disturbed only by the shepherd and his 

 flock, are now to a great extent broken up by cultivation, 

 and harassed by the rattle of the steam -plough. The cliffs 

 have in many places been scarped down, or shattered by the 

 engineer, thus destroying the favourite resorts of many 

 wild birds. The inland aspect of the county, too, is much 

 changed from what it was in former times. Where are the 

 splendid stretches of heather ? the sedgy bottoms ? and 

 where are the Black Game ? 



The whole tribe, too, of Hawks and Owls, though to a 

 certain extent destructive, were useful to the Game pre- 

 server and the farmer, — to the one by destroying the weakly 



