288 FACT AGAINST FICTIOK. 



of twenty couples, with some old ones intermixed, 

 in one day in AiigiiKst, wlien I rented Winkton 

 and its fishery of the late Mr. Weld, of Lulworth 

 Castle ; and now they frequently sell snipes' eggs 

 among the plovers' eggs to the London dealers 

 and chance customers, and it is almost impossible 

 to detect the one egg from the other. The colour 

 of the shell is exactly the same ; the shape is 

 much the same ; and when boiled, the white in 

 the egg of each is similarly clear. If possible, 

 the snipe's egg is the better of the two, only 

 not quite so large, and at times inclined to be 

 more pointed at the lesser end. 



If birds hitherto deemed to be more hahituated 

 to colder climes than ours come to this country 

 thus to breed, that certainly is a sign of change 

 in the times. If wild geese, wild swans, and 

 other rarer water-fowl, do not come to us as much 

 as they used to do, that does not in any way 

 tend to shake my position, because where man 

 increases, and drainage of particular sites pre- 

 dominates, there are some birds who would not 

 be attracted by a habitation foreign to their 

 nature ; and, besides this, all wild and beautiful 

 things invariably decrease as the human race 



