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 ganiekeeper, 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. He protected /us 

 wild creatures, and was delighted at having a colony ot 

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

 Vox: long years he was able to prc:ser\e a primeval oak, 

 the largest in the whok' district, whicli in the year 1870 

 he named tlie " King's Oak." 



To-day no birds of prey breed any longer on this 



192 



