FIRST APPEARANCES Otf BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 229 



(iv.) Permitting cottagers to graze donkeys, cows, and decrepit 

 horses on the sparse fresh grass which grows after a fire. 



(v.) Sundry causes, mischief, smoking, sparks from engines, 

 etc. 



The causes (i.) to (iv.) probably cover 95 per cent, of the 

 fires, since the very people who start the fires get the beer, 

 the money, and the benefits of (iii.) and (iv.). It pays them, 

 therefore, to start fires. If fire beating were reserved as an 

 extra and compulsory rent service, and absence from a fire 

 a matter for fine or forfeiture of tenancy by the terms of the 

 tenancy, the tenants near heaths would see to it that fires 

 did not occur, which would benefit alike landlord and 

 tenant, nation and individual, nature-lover and sportsman. 

 After the 22 May fire we found ten to twelve pheasants' 

 nests and nearly thirty ducks' nests destroyed in an area of 

 some twenty acres, besides numberless small birds' nests. 



That these suspicions are well grounded is borne out by the 

 fact that on one estate in East Dorset fires occurred on three 

 successive Sunday afternoons, but did not reach such incon- 

 venient proportions as to last beyond " tea time." 



With regard to those fires, W.P.C. was told the following 

 year by a credible person that the three fires were deliberately 

 started by certain persons for the sake of the beer given out. 

 Accustomed to sift evidence, W.P.C., after submitting his 

 informant to careful questioning, got " chapter and verse," 

 and is quite satisfied that the statement is true. 



TIDES, 1916. 



On 4 and 5 November, 1916, at Poole we had one of 

 the highest tides that can be remembered, accompanied by 

 a destructive gale. Mr. H. W. Chislett (The Poole Harbour 

 Master) very kindly made enquiries for me, but was not able 

 to get very precise information, as the Harbour Board have no 

 s pecial provision for this class of work. He, however, tells 

 m e the following interesting facts : 



