In Wildest Africa -* 



of sea-gulls, to the injury of a great number of the 

 other species of birds that inhabit our sea-coasts, should 

 also be greatly restricted. If this is not done we shall 

 witness, within a period already in sight, a lamentable 

 extermination of our shore- and sea-birds. And how 

 grateful for protection many species show themselves ! 

 Wherever it is extended to them they enliven the land- 

 scape in the most pleasing way. So, too, it has been 

 found that certain species of gulls have adapted themselves 

 to a kind of nocturnal life in the neighbourhood of our 

 great commercial ports. 



I may here mention as standing in special need of 

 protection, and as wonderful adornments of our German 

 landscape, whose preservation should find an advocate in 

 every thoughtful man the buzzard, the kestrel, the hobby- 

 hawk, both our varieties of kite, the crane, the heron, 

 the white and the black stork, the crested grebe, the 

 water-hen, and the coot. All these enliven and embellish 

 the landscape to a conspicuous extent, and should not be 

 sacrificed to selfish interests. 



I knew an old gamekeeper, a native of the March 

 of Brandenburg, who throughout the course of a long 

 life had been taking care of a shooting estate, which 

 had grown up with him, so to speak. lie protected /us 

 wild creatures, and was delighted at having a colony of 

 storks' nests and a group of badger burrows in /us woods. 

 I' or long years he was able to preserve a primeval oak, 

 the largest in the whole district, which in the year 1870 

 he named the " King's Oak." 



To-dav no birds of nrev breed anv longer on this 



/ 1 j ^ O 



192 



