BIRDS 



The county of Durham is not naturally, and still less in its present 

 economical conditions, favourably adapted for either abundance or variety 

 of bird life, except in certain districts. 



Roughly speaking, the county may be compared to a wedge, an 

 isosceles triangle, driven in between Northumberland and Yorkshire, 

 having its base at the sea and its apex among the hills of the Pennine 

 Chain, the Tyne forming its northern boundary from the coast for over 

 twenty miles, and then generally the Derwent ; and the Tees, from its 

 source to its mouth, bounding it on the south. The Wear, for its whole 

 length, divides it into two unequal parts. These and their tributaries 

 are its only rivers. From the Tyne to the watershed of the Tees Valley 

 extend the coal-measures, covering two-thirds of the county, the western 

 portion of the apex being mountain limestone or millstone grit, while 

 the new red sandstone forms a strip along the lower part of the Tees 

 Valley. The coast line affords little encouragement, and no protection, 

 for sea birds. While Northumberland has its islands, Holy Isle, the 

 Fames, and Coquet, some of them with magnificent cliffs, as breeding 

 resorts, and Yorkshire its bold headlands from Whitby to Flamborough 

 Head, the Durham beach from the Tyne to Hartlepool is slightly 

 elevated from 50 to 100 ft., frequently broken by the narrow openings 

 of little glens, or ' denes ' as they are locally termed. From Hartlepool 

 to Teesmouth there is simply a succession of sand dunes. The Tyne and 

 the Wear cannot be said to have any estuaries, and their banks are fringed 

 by manufactories and docks down to the sea shore. The Tees has an 

 estuary which has provided us with most of our water-fowl, but the river 

 itself is now lined with ironworks and docks until it reaches the sea. 



Thus there is no shelter and little inducement for the passing sea- 

 fowl to halt on our coasts. The little dells which open to the sea 

 between Wearmouth and Hartlepool, some of which (as Castle Eden 

 Dene) preserve remains of the primeval forest, afford refuge to many 

 smaller birds, and a resting place to some few passing immigrants. 



When we leave the coast, the collieries and coke ovens which stud 

 two-thirds of the county, destroying by their fumes trees and hedgerows, 

 and bringing a vast population, have in many places driven away all the 

 winged inhabitants save the house-sparrow. Happily there are not a few 

 parks and sheltered river banks, shielded from the fumes, well stocked 

 with the smaller passerines. The steep and often precipitous well-wooded 

 banks of the Wear, even in the centre of the colliery districts, the 

 sheltered trees escaping the effects of the smoke, are the resort of many 



