BIRDS OF PEASEMARSH 



How it must have cheered Jacques Cartier in 

 the strange New World to find, as he tells in 

 his relations of his voyages, "Cranes, Swans, 

 Wild Geese (white and gray) , Ducks, Thrush- 

 es, Blackbirds, Turtles, Wild Pigeons, Finches, 

 Redbreasts, Nightingales, Sparrows and other 

 birds, even as in France." 



When Sir John Franklin was on his last 

 journey overland to the Arctic, he wrote of 

 their delight at the return of Swans, Ducks and 

 Geese, giving the first indications of spring 

 after the long, cold, dark winter they had been 

 forced to spend in the northland. When 

 travelling down the Coppermine River, almost 

 within sight of the northern ocean, he was 

 serenaded by the many birds that were going 

 to their nesting places. On July 11, he men- 

 tions in his diary the Ducks and Snowbirds 

 that were nesting there, giving life to the dreary 

 wastes. 



Frequently birds were invaluable guides to 

 the explorers travelling in an unknown 

 country. "Late in the evening, as we descried 

 the Ravens wheeling in circles round a small 

 group of poplars, and according to our expecta- 

 tion we found the Indians encamped there," 

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