WILD LIFE AT HOME, AND ABROAD. 199 



To Gilbert White that dear old Selborne patriarch belongs 

 the credit in my opinion for the opening out of the interest 

 which is now evinced in our Fauna, or, to advance a step farther, 

 h the delights of country life, and country pursuits and studies. 

 S:nce the Selborne Naturalist's time interest in the Wild Life of 

 our Country has increased by leaps and bounds, not altogether 

 to the advantage of certain rare birds and animals which have 

 now entirely disappeared from our midst it is true, but this 

 does not come within our province to enlarge upon, or even 

 dilate upon in any measure. 



Now let us see in as brief a manner as possible what Wild 

 Life there is in other Countries, and then finally set out in a 

 short and concise form the sights and sounds on every hand, 

 at every turn, in our own beloved Britain. I am writing down 

 my thoughts just as they occur to me, and shall pay no 

 heed to cut and dried classifications and generalizations, or to 

 geographical distributions. 



I would like to go to Holland to meet with the Great Crested 

 Grebe and the Spoonbill ; I would enjoy a trip to the Engstlen 

 Alps and be amongst the Alpine birds and flowers the beautiful 

 Alpine Swift, the Bonelli's Warbler, the Crimson Winged Wall 

 Creeper, the Black Redstart, the Nutcracker and the Great Black 

 Woodpecker only to mention a few birds in passing which 

 abound in yonder Switzerland, the peasant's paradise. 



It would interest me to ramble over the .well tilled lands of 

 France and watch the Hen Harrier now almost extinct in 

 Britain and then we might go on to Norway. There we 

 might wander through those lonely pine forests where the 

 Fieldfares and Redwings present themselves in a far different 

 manner than when they are with us as Winter visitors; then 

 farther North still, up in the Arctic Regions among the Polar 

 Bears, the Ivory Gulls, the Seals, the Little Auks, the Laplanders 

 and their Reindeer. 



Let us now come very much farther South it is as well to have 

 these extremes and opposites and proceed to India. How grand to 

 watch the Tiger, the Lion, the Leopard, the Wild Boar, the Zebu, 

 the Peacock that symbol of vanity the Cheetah, the Parrots, 

 the Crows, the Jungle Fowl, the giant Snakes, the Elephant, 

 the . Weaver Birds, the Bulbuls, the Pheasants, the Cranes, the 



