278 ON SURREY HILLS. 



spots here and there in our country, now few and far 

 between, in their original wildness, we would fain see 

 unmolested by collectors and their agents. 



That fine bird the stone curlew, that looks like a 

 link between the bustard and the plover, is to a great 

 extent local in his habitat. His general habits are 

 like those of the little bustard. Sandy wastes, rough, 

 broken, bare country, great stretches of no-man's- 

 land, suit him best. He is a bird of passage, but I 

 have known him shot in the dead part of a very 

 hard winter; so they do not all depart. The re- 

 searches in ornithological science of late years show 

 that the most dogmatic statements of some authori- 

 ties (?) require to be qualified a little. It would 

 appear as though our country were going through 

 a climatic change ; the summers are not so hot, nor 

 the winters saving part of the last one so severe 

 as they used to be in my young days. That may 

 account for some birds being found now that were 

 not found then. The question is, Were they looked 

 after then as they are now ? 



The grey plover is found near the coast-line ; he, 

 like his very near relative the golden plover, has a 

 black waistcoat in the breeding season. In his winter 



